'tap tap tap tap tap'
I opened up my eyes to a bright surrounding around me, as well as a soft cycling sound from my right direction. As I had quickly regained my consciousness again, I realized that there was a person inside the room pedaling the power source on the table to light the lamp. In reflex, I looked at my watch to see what time it was, and realized that it was already at 10.04 p.m.
'Christ…. I have been sleeping for nine hours…' I thought to myself as I palmed my face.
Then again, I suppose I would need that long sleep in order for me to gain the necessary strength for the next fight to come. I stood up on my feet, and greeted the person as I was about to leave the room to which he responded by giving me a smile and nod. As I walked out of the staff's room, I noticed that there was almost not a single person there, aside from the three people that was sitting on the stair steps and talking to each other. Apparently, the rest of the others at the hideout were either still finishing their dinner upstairs, or rather were waiting for the official notification of our next plan by Captain Quentin.
I decided that the first thing that I had to do immediately was to have my dinner, and thus I headed for the third floor. Just as I had arrived on the platform, it was like I had expected that it was very crowded there and I could almost guarantee that it was likely two and a half more crowded than before. I noticed however, that none of the people were still holding a snack packaging, suggesting that they were there to wait for something.
I proceeded to go to the snack piles, and grabbed a couple of them together with a bottle of beverage before I sat down nearby and ate my dinner. As I was eating, the number of people seemed to be keep on increasing slowly, to the point that I noticed that their numbers had closely reached three times compared to the usual.
When I had finished my dinner I asked one of them that was the nearest to me on why the others are coming to the first hideout in large numbers, to which he said that the marine in maroon t-shirt with a shotgun wanted to tell everyone something important. It was at that moment that my intuition about Captain Quentin gathering them was proven to be true.
I nodded to him in response, and proceeded by asking where the ammunition piles were, to which he said that it was just across the Morse code machine. I headed to the piles in a rather hurry pace, and filled my backpack with around sixty .45 ACP bullets, as well as loading my submachine gun magazine full with it.
I also noticed that the ammunition were piled quite neatly according to each kinds of cartridges, despite that there was literally nothing used as the divider between them. There were three kinds of ammunition cartridges piled there – 9mm, .45 ACP, and 12 Gauge. Somehow, to the least of my expectation the .45 ACP rounds seemed to be the most abundant as I thought that it would most likely be the 9mm instead. After I had finished preparing, I waited there as I initiated some light talks with few other survivors there until the time was almost 10.30 p.m.
I finished my talk with them, and was about to leave the ammunition piles when I noticed that Captain Quentin, Ryan, and Della were all gathered at the Morse code machine, with Ryan pedaling the power source. As I finally get to group up with them again, I asked them on where Jonathan and Kyle were, to which they responded that they were still on their way from the second hideout while Virgil was also to stay there. Shortly after, Captain Quentin told Ryan to turn on the switch for the speaker as he was just about to make the important notification through it.
"GOOD EVENING, TO ALL OF FELLOW SURVIVORS. THIS IS GABE QUENTIN SPEAKING, OR TO SOME OF YOU MAY CALL ME AS 'THE MARINE IN MAROON'. IN THE PAST FIVE DAYS, WE HAVE BEEN INVADED BY THE UNINVITED GUESTS FROM OUT THERE, AND WE HAVE LOST THOSE THAT WE HOLD DEAREST.
THOSE GUESTS THOUGHT THAT THEY CAN DOMINATE US WITH THEIR SOPHISTICATED TECHNOLOGIES AND WEAPONS, BUT WE HAVE PROVEN THEM WRONG WITH OUR OBSOLETE TACTICS LAST NIGHT, WHICH RESULTED IN THEIR OWN SEVERE SETBACKS. TONIGHT AT MIDNIGHT, I, TOGETHER WITH FEW AMONG US WILL DELIVER THE FINAL BLOW TO THEM BY GOING DEEP INSIDE TO THE VERY CORE OF THEIR EXISTENCE, THEIR MOTHERSHIP.
WE CANNOT EXPRESS HOW RELIEVED WE WERE UPON REALIZING THAT EACH OF YOU STILL HAVE HIGH SPIRITS DESPITE THE HORRORS THAT WILL BE FOREVER ETCHED INTO OUR MEMORIES. THEREFORE, I WOULD LIKE TO ASK ONE MORE THING, AND ONE THING ONLY.
WHATEVER HAPPENS TO US LATER IN THE MIDNIGHT, I BEG YOU ALL TO NOT ABANDON YOUR SPIRITS INSIDE AND KEEP ON FIGHTING FOR THE SAKE OF OURSELVES. FOR THAT WE HAVE TO SHOW, AND PROVE THAT NO OTHER BEINGS SHOULD LOOK DOWN UPON HUMANS."
In an instant, all of the people around us cheered loudly upon hearing Captain Quentin's speech. Not only that, the whole people inside the hideout also persuaded us to bring more ammunition, a clear sign that they completely trusted their lives on us.
I noticed that among the crowds, there was also Fiora, standing there and seemed to be smiling at me as I looked at her. I approached her to one of the platform corners by avoiding the crowds as they seemed to be helping the others in preparing for other additional necessary equipment. As I had finally reached her, we conversed for a moment.
"Tonight is going to be the night, huh…" Fiora said, as she smiled.
"Yeah… I am not even sure whether I am thrilled or rather scared right now…" I responded, as I looked down to the ground a little.
"Hmm, from what I see… You are just nervous…" she replied to me as she moved a little closer to me.
Just then, she handed me something like a necklace pendant, which she first removed from her neck.
"Um… I do not know why, but I think it is better for you to keep this…" she said, right after she gave it to me.
"Why are you giving me this?" I asked, completely confused on her actions.
"I just… think that you will need it more than I do…" she responded, "I usually think of it as, a lucky charm.
"Well… if you say so… I appreciate it, thanks…" I said, as I kept the pendant inside my pocket.
Shortly after, I noticed that the rest of the others' preparation seemed to have also finished since the crowd had thinned out. I also realized that both Jonathan and Kyle were also already there and seemed to be completely ready to leave. As I was about to approach them, Fiora wished me luck for the final battle to come.
"Well, time to go, Ensign…" she said, as she grabbed me by my left arm and kissed me on my left cheek softly.
Just then, she rushed to the crowds, and was instantly merged with them. With my mind still could not process what had just happened, I approached the rest of the others in a quick pace.
As I grouped up with them again, apparently they were in the middle of discussing something with each other, but particularly with Jonathan. When I caught up, I realized that they were talking about the nearest harbor that would probably house a rowing boat big enough for six people to get inside with a considerably six full backpack weights. He said that the nearest harbor was right to the east direction of the first hideout about six blocks away, and would take roughly half an hour by walking.
Upon hearing it, Kyle responded by saying that the harbor was not that far from where we had force-landed the aircraft, suggesting that the rough distance from the harbor to the mothership would be very similar if compared. Therefore, the rest of us agreed on going to the harbor. As we were about to depart from our hideout, I looked at the time and realized that it was already 11.08 p.m. Our first step on the final step to completely counter the aliens had just begun…