The gun cocking and bullet inserting sounds were heard clearly right behind me as I waited for the rest of them finished reloading their firearms. As I was still waiting and covering them, I noticed that the narwhal aircraft seemed to be hovering lower and lower since its purple lights were widening slowly right above us. Not long after, everyone seemed to have already finished as I could no longer hear their sounds.
At first, I thought that we were about to do a little bit of a rushed briefing on how we would take down the large aircraft before we did something. Instead, Jonathan rushed immediately down to the fifth floor of the parking lot building without saying anything, and it seemed like everyone on the rooftop was just eager to follow him since they just followed right behind him without saying anything, making me the furthest person to follow right behind him.
Fortunately, just when we arrived at the fifth floor of the building, he told us that there were barely any traps inside the whole building left not triggered, but just to be safe we had to follow right behind him to make sure we did not trigger any. As we had reached the fourth floor, I asked Jonathan with a rather loud voice on why it seemed like we were rushing to escape from the building instead of to bring down the aircraft. His answer to my question apparently put all the rest of us surprised.
"You recall when I told you that this dense fog is some kind of a thermal sensor?!" he said with a loud voice as he was leading us to the third floor.
"Yeah! What about it now?!" I responded to him as we were rushing down to the third floor.
"Imagine that you suddenly got a trace of everyone in your most wanted list on your radar gathered in one place! And you were allowed to use any means necessary to wipe them out! What are you going to do?!" he answered, and also asked me about my opinion as he continued to lead us to the second floor.
"Even if I wanted to nuke a little spot it will still be okay?!" I responded him, with a complete disbelief in my mind.
"Yes! And that is most likely what is on their minds right now!" he told me, and apparently also informing the rest of the others.
With Jonathan finished explaining that the large aircraft was most likely about to completely destroy the three buildings, tense and panic atmosphere was present around us in an instant. It seemed that even though each of us had expected some kind of a big move from the aliens to retaliate our actions in our own minds, none of us had ever thought that they would do it right after we made our next retaliation and directly with the large aircraft instead of the small ones.
Suddenly, a very loud crushing noise were heard right above us and immediately followed by a very violent quake just as we had arrived on the second floor. I realized in an instant that the aircraft was going to crush the three buildings at once literally by using its massive body, and thus I also informed the others about it. It was a huge shock for me however, that just as I was about to start informing them about it, the second floor ceiling had started to cave in, indicating that the aircraft could very easily and quickly crush them.
"Oh, you must be kidding me!" I griped loudly as we were rushing behind Jonathan to the first floor.
We rushed faster to the first floor and shortly after, I could hear very clearly that the access to the second floor had been blocked completely by chunks of concrete and asphalt from the second floor. I had my heart pounded so hard as all of us panicked when the first floor ceiling started to cave in very quickly. My mind also started to buzz violently when I realized that we had blocked all means of access of entrance and exit at the first floor back when we were preparing the buildings. I even started to think if we would meet our demise by our own doings, when suddenly Jonathan revealed something about it.
"I have made a gap just straight ahead of us! Just jump outside right after I do!" Jonathan shouted as he rushed straight faster.
Very shortly after, I could see him jumped outside to the street through the gap, even though just barely, followed by Ryan and the others until it was only me left in the building. I believed that the ceiling had caved in no more than one foot away from me when I jumped outside, as I could hear a very loud rumbling sound just as I jumped. I landed by rolling over to the middle of the road, before I witnessed by my own eyes that all of the three buildings had been completely razed to the ground. I had just barely escaped the building.
Ryan helped me stood up on my feet again, before we rushed in a bit slower pace and taking cover behind the walls of a building right across the site of the parking lot building which seemed to also be a bank. Jonathan told us not to move as he peeked towards the direction of the large aircraft. Based on the loud grumbling sounds that the aircraft made as well as a very mild quake that followed, I believed that it was safe for me to assume that it was currently hovering very low from the ground, perhaps only around one foot away from it.
"Hey, I think that it is flying very close to the ground now…" I said with a very low voice to everyone.
"Exactly…" Jonathan responded to me, as if to confirm what I had just said with what he had seen.
"You got any idea?" Captain Quentin responded to him, as he was still taking cover right beside me.
Jonathan did not respond anything and just went back to his covering position, and started to look around our surroundings especially to the bank where we were currently taking cover at. As he seemed to be glancing at the building more thoroughly than the others, I was curious to what he could be thinking. The only thing that I could notice right away since it was very dark outside and I could barely see anything in the first place, was that the bank seemed to have a considerably large hole formed on its second floor which perhaps was created when a T-shaped aircraft shot the walls for reasons unknown.
It was then when I realized that Jonathan might be thinking to jump from the second floor of the building to the top of the aircraft, and then maybe to break his way inside the aircraft and hijack it. Apparently, Captain Quentin might also be aware of what he was about to do and thus he attempted to prevent the idea, although his attempt was proved to be vain.
"Jon, I would not do-" Captain Quentin said, before he was cut off by Jonathan.
"Sorry, we only get one chance. I cannot see any other options now…" Jonathan said, with a voice full of determination.
Just as I had predicted, Jonathan then proceeded to explain to us that he would jump from the second floor of the bank through the hole there, and to the top of the aircraft before he would figure on how to get inside the aircraft from there. As expected, everyone besides me and Captain Quentin was very shocked to hear that.
"All of us?!" Kyle asked him, with a rather loud voice in complete disbelief.
"No. Just me." Jonathan said, as if to assure them that they would not need to get the share of the danger.
Realizing that his chances would be very slim should he was to go alone, I reluctantly said that I would go with him. Captain Quentin also did the same, even though he also seemed to be berating him for his decision since I felt like I could see him pointing his finger towards Jonathan as he decided to go with him.
"Alright fine, let me go with you." I said, as I sighed and felt a very hard feeling suddenly emerged inside my heart.
"Ugh, what the hell… count me in. But you better get out in one piece later on." Captain Quentin said, berating Jonathan.
I then told them to wait for a bit as I handed Ryan again my submachine gun again together with my backpack for their safety. I assured the rest of the others that he would need it more since the two of us who had a firearm with a devastating firepower would be going for the aircraft. I told him to fire around three to four shots from it once I gave him a signal from the second floor by throwing out something, to find out if it could distract the aircraft and bring it closer to the bank so we could jump to the top of it.
Ryan agreed, and in exchange he handed me again his flashlight, saying that it we would need it just in case it would also be dark inside the aircraft. Once the two of us bartered our equipment and firearm, I readied Captain Quentin's handgun on my right hand, and Ryan's flashlight on my left hand as we began to enter the bank through the broken window just beside its main entrance.
I turned on the Ryan's flashlight before we went inside the bank one by one, and immediately rushed to the second floor of the building. As we had arrived there, I could see that a big part of the second floor's wall was missing and just as we had arrived in front of it, we could see the narwhal aircraft hovering in some distances beside the bank and still emitting thin purple lights on its body as it was hovering in a bit of lower level than the second floor of the bank.
I then proceeded by picking up a couple of pebbles scattered around the large hole on the wall, and threw it down through the window, hoping that it would hit one of them below. Shortly after, my submachine gun shooting sound was heard from the same direction, indicating that Ryan noticed my signal and in almost an instant the large aircraft turned its course towards them.
Realizing the distraction was a succeed, Jonathan, Captain Quentin, and I readied ourselves by covering right alongside the remaining walls of the second wall, waiting for the aircraft to hover close enough to the hole before we could jump to the top of it. The grumbling sound was getting louder, and I could feel the quake was getting more violent as the aircraft was getting closer to us. Finally, after about roughly twenty seconds, Jonathan moved away from his cover and prepared to make the jump. Captain Quentin followed almost immediately, and I took a long deep breath before I followed them and release it.
Jonathan was the first one to reach the top of the aircraft, who landed pretty hard after he jumped. Captain Quentin followed almost immediately by landing more smoothly than him, and I reached it last. Just as I landed, I slipped hard and had nearly fallen from the aircraft should Captain Quentin did not grab my hand quickly. I got back on my feet again, and thanked him immediately before I crouched and forced myself to adjust the rather round and slippery surface of the top of the aircraft
Jonathan then had his eyes locked towards one end of the aircraft, seemingly trying to figure out if he could do something towards it that would make the three of us able to force our way inside the aircraft. He proceeded by approaching it slowly by crouching while he also had his rifle ready and aimed towards it.
I followed right behind him and Captain Quentin followed behind me until he suddenly stopped and realized that the aircraft actually had a tail, although very short and small. At first, I had my doubts to his words, until he approached it closer again and very near to the end of the tail that I started to hear a very familiar jet-like sound, only it was much smoother. I immediately realized that in order to damage or destroy its tail, we would have to fire our weapons right on where Jonathan was currently standing, which was exactly the edge of the aircraft top.
"Well, what are we waiting for…" Jonathan said, as he took five steps back and aimed right at it.
'ZTOOM ZTOOM ZTOOM'
Jonathan fired three rounds from his rifle, perhaps to be sure that it would at least damage the tail. However, it seemed that he instead destroyed it completely as it immediately exploded violently after being shot. Just then, a very loud noise was heard, seemingly from the body of the aircraft.
As I attempted to see what could have caused it from where I was standing, I saw with my own eyes that four fins, or rather wings were being lengthened from its body, with each two on the right and left side of the body and the back fins shorter than the front ones. I also noticed that right at the tip of the wings were rotor blades-like machine, spinning very smoothly.
Apparently, the aircraft had some sort of an alternative flying mechanism should its main flying mechanism was damaged or destroyed. I also came to realize that the flying speed of the aircraft was suddenly reduced significantly just as its tail was destroyed.
Just then, three aliens emerged and stood on top of the left front wings before they started to fire their beam rifles at us. Thanks to Jonathan's swift reflex, he lied down very quickly before he aimed towards their heads and shot them all with only one shot each. Again, I already knew full well that he was an outstanding sniper who had an extreme endurance as well as an impressive sight, but shooting the aliens right on their heads with only one shot each while on top of a flying object could only mean that he also had an excellent distance calculations.
Captain Quentin then immediately rushed and jumped down to the left front wing, before he opened fire a couple of rounds from his shotgun almost immediately, perhaps to take down one or two aliens. As he signaled us to follow him, I quickly but carefully crouched towards the front left wing, before jumped and landed smoothly there. Jonathan followed almost immediately after I stood up on my feet again. The three of us aimed our firearms towards what seemed to be the access to the inside of the aircraft, before we started to head on inside very cautiously.
Captain Quentin was the first one to enter the aircraft, followed by me right behind him, and lastly Jonathan who seemed to be guarding us from behind. As the three of us finally went inside, the three of us could see what the aircraft looked like from the inside.
I believed I was not wrong when I roughly estimated the aircraft to be around 60 feet in length back when I saw it the first time when we departed from the fire department, as it was indeed a very long aircraft when I looked at it from the inside. In addition, I believed it was safe for me to assume that it must have a width of around 36 feet, as it was very spacious inside.
Aside from that, contrary to what Ryan and I had assumed, it was in fact quite bright inside the aircraft with two lines of straight purple lights lined up on the curvy ceiling of the aircraft which was perhaps no less than 15 feet in height. What was more, was that the floor of the aircraft seemed to be made up of something very soft yet durable, as I could not hear our footsteps when we went inside earlier. However, I had no enough courage in me to touch it.
I realized that my time to glance at the aircraft interior was up, as suddenly several beam rifle shots were fired towards our direction, with all of them being a near miss thanks to Jonathan's quick reflex to duck which I, and also apparently Captain Quentin spontaneously followed. As the alien seemed to be reloading, Jonathan quickly retaliated by aiming his rifle and fired at two of the three aliens that had opened fire at us.
Captain Quentin rushed forward soon after and blasted the remaining alien's head with his shotgun, destroying its right fin ear and a small portion of its head, before it fell to the floor. With the three aliens had been taken down, another two appeared from the direction of the aircraft tail. Captain Quentin and I rushed towards a nearby pillar-like structure and took cover there, while Jonathan ducked and fired his rifle again towards the two aliens, as they had also started to fire at us.
Even though it did not come as a surprise for me since I somehow had predicted from the start, I noticed that even though the aliens' beam rifle shots hit the structures of the aircraft they did not seem to do any damage to the structures, implying that the whole interiors of the aircraft were made out of a beam rifle resistant material. It would make sense, since no one would want their vehicles to be easily destroyed in the first place.
"So? Head or tail?" Captain Quentin asked Jonathan as he was reloading three shotgun shells inside his shotgun.
"I would say head, but Jon?" I responded, suggesting on where we should go to next first.
"Then head it is…" Jonathan replied, after he fell silent for a little moment.
Just as we had decided to go to the head part of the aircraft, I could feel that the aircraft had stopped moving suddenly. Thus, my instinct suddenly kicked in, telling me that more aliens in greater numbers were coming to us. Apparently, both Jonathan and Captain Quentin also shared the same intuition as they immediately crouched and began to reload their firearms. As they were reloading, Jonathan suggested me to aim at their fin ears and/or eyes, and not their rifles.
I had to admit that when we were already inside, I was not sure on where to shoot, as .45 ACP rounds would not give damages as severe as 12 gauge shells nor could it penetrate the aliens' heads easily like .30-06 rounds. I was also aware of the possibility that it would be too dangerous to explode the aliens' beam rifles as it could destroy the whole aircraft with us still inside it. Since there were no other choices, I realized that I could still at least injure them by shooting at their softer body parts, as even though it would not kill them, it would still reduce their effectiveness in fight.
As both of them had finished reloading, we proceeded again towards the wide stairs like structures several feet ahead of us, which would probably lead to the cockpit area at the end of the aircraft head. However, as we had arrived right in front to stairs, Jonathan suddenly stopped, before he said something very concerning to both me and Captain Quentin.
"Could they be waiting for us just right in front of this stairs?" Jonathan said, in a very low voice.
Captain Quentin and I fell silent, not saying anything as if our lips were sealed so suddenly. I grasped that it would explain why the aircraft stopped all of a sudden, and therefore we would have to somehow lure them away from the cockpit, or at least to descend from the stairs. It was then when Captain Quentin said we had to fall back to the pillar where he had taken cover at, and to wait for them there.
I soon turned to Jonathan, who seemed to also agree with Captain Quentin's suggestion as he slowly moved back while still had his attention locked towards the stairs ahead of him. When we finally reached the pillar again, Captain Quentin and I took cover at the very same spot as previously while Jonathan covered behind another pillar right across it.
Then, another problem occurred to my mind. Since we could even barely hear any footsteps, it would be much harder for us to notice and predict their positions should they came and approached us while we were taking cover. However, I suddenly had an alternative, although very risky and perhaps reckless suggestion. Nevertheless, I eventually decided to say it to both of them since they did not seem to have any.
"What if… we explode few of the rifles? So we could lure them by forcing them to come to our direction?" I said to both of them, reluctantly.
"Jon…?" Captain Quentin responded by asking Jonathan.
"Personally? Better than nothing…" Jonathan responded, as he seemed to smirk a little.
'BLAM BLAM, BLAM BLAM'
I took a deep breath as I aimed the handgun towards two of the nearest beam rifle, and shot each of them twice, resulting in two explosions that shook the aircraft quite violently. Immediately after that, I crouched and shot another further rifle again and exploding it before I reloaded the handgun as both Jonathan and Captain Quentin aimed straight towards the stairs from the pillar.
As expected, four aliens suddenly rushed down the stairs towards our direction, as said by Captain Quentin while I was still reloading, but both of them did not open fire towards the alien right away. Instead, they let them rushed closer first before finally shot three out of fall down. I went out from my cover and aimed towards the remaining alien's eye, and shot Captain Quentin's handgun five rounds towards it.
When I was done, I could see that it had both of its red eyes damaged by my shot, and started to shoot its beam rifle aimlessly around it. Just then, another alien came rushing down from the stairs towards the shooting alien, and Jonathan quickly aimed his rifle towards the rushing one and shot it down as Captain Quentin shot the crippled one twice to the head.
With the two aliens down, we did not see any other aliens rushing down from the stairs anymore. We went out from our cover, approached the stairs, and finally with more courage and confidence in ourselves, we ascended it and saw for the first time the appearance of the aircraft cockpit from the inside.
The first things that I noticed about the cockpit were not only that the cockpit was as wide as the body of the aircraft, it felt like as if I was looking straight at one part of the town through a large single windshield, unobstructed by any fog on broad daylight. What was more was that it had a focused and very sharp resolution that I could clearly see the great lake shore from our current spot which was no less than a mile away.
The next thing that I came to notice was that there were many control panels right in front of the windshield, most likely for the aliens to control the aircraft and they seemed to be operating it with a standing up position since I could not see any sort of sitting equipment in front of the panels. Then, several feet away from the stairs was another control panel, and since it was the only one straying away from the rest of the other panels I assumed that it was for the aircraft's tusk which perhaps functioned as a weapon, similar to the T-shaped aircrafts' jet like engines under their wings.
"Okay, now how should we bring this thing down…" Captain Quentin muttered, apparently to himself but also to me and Jonathan.
I looked at Jonathan, who was approaching the control panel on the right side as I was approaching the panel for the tusk. As I continued on looking at the panel, I identified various unfamiliar words, or rather symbols, which would perhaps be some kind of instructions of usage for the aliens, as well as some sort of a single standing steering wheel on a stick around five feet tall from the cockpit floor. Just then, Jonathan mentioned something.
"Those aliens… they all only have one active hand, right?" He asked to me and Captain Quentin as he still had his eyes on the control panel.
"What about it?" I asked him as a respond.
"That means, all of the panels here were each meant to be able to be controlled by using one hand… including the control stick or steer, if any…" he continued.
Right after he finished his words, I told Jonathan that there was some sort of a steering stick right in front of the control panel where I was currently standing. He immediately approached the panel and began to look at it more thoroughly. Eventually, I could feel like he somehow assumed that the steering stick was not for the tusk, but instead to move the aircraft.
At first, I could sense the doubts and perhaps even a slight hint of fear inside him when he wanted to grab the steering stick. However, he eventually went along and grabbed it by his left hand, and began to push it forward very gently.
Much to my surprise, the aircraft began to move forward, although very slowly. I looked to him again, who seemed to push it a little forward again gently which resulted in the aircraft moving forward a little bit faster, but with the cockpit then also started to tilt forward a little.
"Huh… never expected that to happen…" Captain Quentin said with a delight in his tone from the left side of the control panel in front of the windshield.
"Let us see… if we can land this thing on the shore straight ahead." Jonathan said as he smiled a bit and still holding the steering stick tightly.
The first block of buildings were passed, and Jonathan kept on going with the same and steady pace until when we entered the second block of buildings, which was roughly about a quarter way to the lake shore, when he remembered that the aircraft that we were currently hijacking was also responsible for the dense fog that occurred at the town. Thus, he also began to search for some sort of switch that could stop the fog from being spewed out.
"Wait, this aircraft also spews out the fog, right? Then, we have to find the switch to stop it." Jonathan said, as he started to look at the panel right in front the steering stick again.
I started to look at the control panel on the right side of the windshield, while Captain Quentin seemed to be re-looking at all of the panels on the left side. After a while, I noticed that there was some kind of a large screen on the right end of the panel which perhaps indicated the current state of the aircraft.
The screen showed what appeared to be the appearance of the aircraft if viewed from the top-side, since it showed what seemed to be a small triangle shape in front of an uneven oval shape, with the bigger end of the oval directly connected to the triangle base, and the smaller end directly connected to a small rectangle. Four fin-like shapes were also shown along the oval shape, with two bigger fins closer to the triangle, and two smaller fins closer to the small rectangle. A small circle was also shown right at the middle of the oval shape.
All of the shapes showed bright purple color, except for the small rectangle which was shown with a black color instead. There were also some black dots in the middle of the oval, but closer to the smaller end. I soon realized that it was most likely the condition of all of the aircrafts' main parts, with the ones in purple colors meant that they were in good condition, while the ones in black colors meant that they were either damaged or were no longer functioning. I told both Captain Quentin and Jonathan immediately, to which both of them had their own opinion about it.
"Not functioning anymore, huh… So either we turn it off, or we destroy it to reduce the fog…" Jonathan responded.
"I would prefer the latter, but damn… we do not have enough firepower…" Captain Quentin said.
Then, both of them fell silent as they were most likely thinking about any other possible alternatives. There was actually, one thing that I could suggest to them. However whether or not it would seem too risky would be completely up to Jonathan as the pilot of the hijacked aircraft. It was also at that moment that I realized we had just entered the third block.
"Since we are going to land no matter how, I can suggest another alternative…" I said, as I paused for a moment before continuing, "however, whether it is possible or not would be up to you, Jon…"
"Go ahead…" Jonathan responded, seemed to be interested since there were no other options at that moment.
I proceeded by saying that if we could somehow rub the fogging turret that was installed right at the middle of the aircraft's bottom side hard enough against the road, we could damage it to the point that it would be no longer functioning. However, since at the end of the third block there would be an elevated railroad blocking the way, he could only start from the fourth block, in which I was not sure if by the time we reached the lake shore, the fogging turret could no longer function.
To my surprise, Jonathan laughed and said that it was his initial plan all along since he also could not figure out any other way to land. So, with that in mind the three of us agreed to land the aircraft by forcing the bottom part against the road. As we passed the third block, I could see that there were at least a hundred people gathered at both of the hideouts, and all of them had their attentions locked towards the aircraft. I could even see the hideouts very clearly than before since the aircraft windshield seemed to be very much focused.
Just as we entered the fourth building blocks, Jonathan pushed the stick forward quiet roughly, resulting in a sudden tilting which put both me and Captain Quentin lost some of our balance, but not to the point that we fell. As the aircraft moved forward faster, but also very close to the road, a very loud rattling noise was starting to be heard from the direction of the bottom side of the aircraft.
I rushed to the control panel that showed the damage condition of the whole aircraft, to which it started to show black color blipping on the small circle, indicating that it had been damaged, but was still functioning. As the rattling noise continued, I could feel that the aircraft had moved a bit slower, albeit by then I could also feel a mild quake. The black blipping on the small circle started out with a slow rate, and was blipping faster until it no longer turned to the original purple color. By that time, we were already in the middle of the sixth block.
"Alright! One down, one more to go!" Captain Quentin said, as he tried not to fell to the floor.
Even though the aircraft was getting slower little by little, I was starting to wonder if the friction between the bottom side of the aircraft and the road would not be enough to completely stop the aircraft from moving forward. However, just as we had entered the eighth, which was also the last block of buildings before the lake shore, all of the lights and the control panels inside the aircraft started to flicker rapidly.
It would most likely caused by the malfunctioning of the whole aircraft system due to the exceeding damage that was sustained by bottom part of the aircraft. Eventually, the aircraft stopped moving completely just as it was about to reach the main road by the lake shore. Just as it stopped, the whole cockpit, as well as the whole interiors of the aircraft's light flickered slowly, and the control panel showing the whole parts of the aircraft black blipping also slowly, except for its front fins.
"Now, we know one way to land this thing…" Jonathan said, as he gently released his grip from the steering stick.
I let out a huge sigh, as I realized that we had yet again survived another extremely life-threatening ordeal. Not wanting to spend any more time inside the aircraft, the three of us walked slowly and tiredly towards the access where we had entered the aircraft from.
Just as we walked outside to the front left fin, few gunshots were fired to us. I immediately realized that it was the rest of the others who had apparently chased the aircraft all the way from the bank, and had thought that the three of us were aliens that had just came out of the downed aircraft.
"Hey, it is okay! It is us!" I said to them, with both my hands raised up.
In an instant, all of them stopped pointing their firearms at us. As we jumped down from the aircraft fin, I noticed that the rotor blade on the front fin was still spinning, although slowly, while the one on the back fin had gone dead. I also realized that from the outside, the aircraft also let out slowly flickering purple lights that were lined up all across its body.
With the narwhal aircraft taken down, we could safely conclude that the guerilla warfare that we had brought to the aliens succeeded. Since we would also need to strategize our next and perhaps last move, we had to go back to the hideouts, which then had a booming numbers of survivors reaching roughly 200 people in total. I looked at my watch, and realized that it was already 00.40 a.m., before I headed back to our hideouts together with the others…