It had been around fifteen minutes since we left the hideout. At the very front of our group was of course, no other than Jonathan who had the best and sharpest sight among all of us despite the darkness that surrounded us. Just behind him, Ryan and Kyle followed with both of them equipped with handguns. Then, on the third line, were Della and I while Captain Quentin was the one walking behind us. Since Ryan already had his flashlight returned to him, he was also the one lighting our surroundings as we walked our way to the harbor.
Unlike our previous ventures in the middle of the night, somehow I could barely feel the tense atmosphere around us as we were walking. Instead, I felt like there was a strong determination from inside of the rest of the others. The reason I believed it, was because I did not notice the usual anxious and restlessness that was almost always drawn on most of their faces, together with their tense and rigid standing position whenever we ventured out in the middle of the night. They seemed to be more relaxed and steady.
Shortly after, Della started to talk, perhaps to break the deep silence that filled the atmosphere. She asked what the four empty canisters inside Captain Quentin's backpack were that was given to him. Captain Quentin laughed a little and for a little while, before he answered that they were some sort of incendiary IEDs (improvised explosive devices) in the form of small canister filled with about two thirds full of gas inside. At first, Della and Kyle did not understand the term 'incendiary', until he explained that they could also consider it as the similar version of Molotov cocktails but with canisters, not bottles.
"No wonder I kind of smell a gas aroma from here…" Ryan said.
"So that was what that additional gas tank you insisted all about…" Jonathan responded, referring to the last preparations for the concrete jungle back at the day before after I had returned to the first hideout.
"Worked so damn well did not it?" Captain Quentin replied, as he gave out a smile.
"Guess I cannot complain about how it turned out…" Jonathan answered, as he nodded twice.
Since I had not grasped completely on how Captain Quentin had obtained the remaining gasoline from our last big fight with the aliens, I asked him about it right away. He said that back at the afternoon after all of us had agreed on departing to the harbor at midnight, he and Ryan approached two other survivors to go to the secretariat building with them.
After they had a total of four people in the small group, they went to the second hideout and asked Virgil as well as few other people there if any of them had some sort of small canisters. Virgil said he did not have any, however pretty much to their surprise few of the other survivors there turned out to have some. Therefore, Captain Quentin proceeded to take six with him and continued going to the secretariat building, where there were still two gasoline tanks not ignited yet.
As they had arrived there, the four of them gently lifted up the gasoline tank and filled one the canister until it was about two thirds full, before proceeding to the others. Unfortunately, just as they had finished filling the canister, the gasoline had turned empty, and therefore they could only fill four out of six. Captain Quentin then proceeded to take a leftover rope also from inside the same building, before they proceeded to go back to the second hideout while bringing the filled canisters carefully.
When they had arrived back, he asked Virgil again if he had some sort of a duct tape with him to cover the top part of the canister, to which then he answered he did. Once the top part of the canister had been covered completely, he cut off some parts of the rope into much smaller parts using Ryan's folding knife before putting them back inside his backpack, along with the duct-taped gas canisters. I asked if he was going to use the incendiary IEDs like a dynamite style when he had to first make a hole at the center of the duct tape, and inserted a short piece of rope inside before lighting it, to which he confirmed it.
"Never knew before that the Marine Corps would get to even know those kinds of things…" Kyle said.
"I guess you could say that it was the result of field experiences…" Captain Quentin responded.
The deep silence around us lightened up quite satisfyingly, for a rather pretty short time however, as Jonathan informed us that he had begun to see the sign of the harbor in the distance. After a little more walking ahead, he finally said that we had arrived. It took me several more steps ahead, before I could begin to see the sign of the harbor myself.
To be honest, I had thought that we might have to climb the entrance to get inside the harbor since it would likely be fenced all around. However on the contrary, there were no fences at all and instead we could just literally walk to the docks and approach few of the ships and yachts that were still parked there.
I looked some more around us, and realized that there seemed to be a rather large sized boathouse at some distance away from the shore along the docks. I asked them if they might think that there could be any large rowing boat stationed inside, to which they all immediately agreed that we might as well go there all along to find out. The dark midnight, as well as the shore wind at the beginning of the year sent some chill inside my skin as we walked steadily but also quite silently on the docks, letting out small tapping noises as we took each of our steps.
As I had guessed, the boat house did indeed station three large sized rowing boats for eight people, just the right number for all six of us since we also brought our full backpacks with us. We gently moved one of the rowing boats, bringing it outside to the docks before we slowly put it on the water. The lake water tide also seemed to be pretty higher, as the distance between the water surfaces to the docks were not that far.
"Tonight also happened to be that night where the tide rises a bit huh…" I muttered.
As we were preparing to go down to the boat one by one, Jonathan stopped moving and seemed to be deep in his thoughts about something. I asked him on what was wrong, to which he did not answer at first, but he eventually asked me something about the tide.
He asked if the water of the great lake worked similarly to the ocean waters in the case of low and high tides. I answered to him by saying that the occurrences of high tides in the great lake were not that uncommon, although it could be considered as just a mere low rises if compared to the actual phenomenon that took place at the ocean waters. I also mentioned to him that the highest ever tide that had been recorded on the great lake was just roughly eight centimeters which took place back in late February 2030, when I was still in college.
Jonathan then went back to helping Della and Kyle to get inside the boat first, before Ryan proceeded to get inside it as well. Just as I was about to get to the boat, Jonathan asked me again if I could at least take a guess on a rough assumption regarding the rise on the lake water tide level. I thought for a moment, before I was just to answer him that it could be at around twenty centimeters, and in that exact moment I grasped on what could be the things that were running on his thoughts.
Normally, the high tides on the great lake would not exceed four centimeters, with the exception of eight centimeters back in 2030, and only once. However, if the tide was indeed currently had reached twenty centimeters then there could be only two possible explanations.
The first explanation was due to an extremely violent wind that occurred at the vicinity of the lake. Should the wind that was currently blowing was much more violent, I would really take that possibility right away. Unfortunately, since it was not the case, then there could be only one other possible explanation.
Some people tend to believe that the rise and recede of ocean waters depended on the condition of the moon – if it was full, then there would be a good chance that the ocean waters would rise, and vice versa. Based on what I had learned, they were not completely mistaken. However, it was not actually the moon itself that caused the rising tide, but rather its gravitational pull.
Since the lake would considerably have much less flow and volume of water as opposed to the oceans, the rise on tides should not be that significant, unless the gravitational pull was much stronger than the usual ones. And besides, the moon was not even currently present.
With that in mind, the second possible explanation would be that the gravitational pull that occurred on the lake was due to something else causing it in the middle of the lake. The only thing that immediately popped out in my mind was none other than the aliens' mothership itself. Just as I was about to say it to Jonathan, he said that it would be better if we discuss it on our way there.
"Yeah, you got my point. Come on, we better explain it as we rowed this boat." He said, as he assisted me on going down to the boat.
I sat right facing towards Kyle, with both Della and Ryan sitting in the middle of us. Jonathan then got down to the boat, taking the position of right behind Kyle, and making the boat tilted a little towards their side before Captain Quentin finally got down and sat right behind me, thus making the boat balanced again. As all six of us had gotten inside it, we rowed the boat away from the boathouse, and furthering our distance from it as we paddled our way to the floating mothership.
After a few moments had passed, I finally said what had occurred on my mind right before I got down to the boat to everyone else. When I had finished explaining to them, Ryan, Della, and Kyle immediately asked me why I had thought about it, to which Jonathan was the one to respond them.
"Do you recall when I said something about gravity balancer that was attached to the feet of those bulky aliens?" Jonathan asked as his response.
"What about it?" Kyle responded to him, still confused.
"Think of a much bigger size of it, and imagine that it could also be attached at the side of the mothership that was dipped inside the water." Jonathan answered her as he continued to paddle.
He continued by explaining that the manner of the mothership's attempt to stabilize itself on the water could be similar to that of the full moon phenomenon. In order for it to not just float wildly in the middle of the lake, it might have to condition itself through a gravitational state manipulation of its surroundings by using the similar but obviously much bigger gravity balancer located at its bottom part.
So, instead of the usual full moon, the mothership would instead be the one acting as the gravitational puller for the lake waters. Therefore, it would be able to float still in the middle of the lake, but with the consequence of the extreme rise of lake waters tide.
When Jonathan had finished explaining, I could see that Kyle had no longer that confused frown expressed on her face. However, apparently Della still needed an additional explanation, especially regarding our safety with the phenomenon that was actually currently still taking place.
"So, does that mean that we are in deep trouble? Now that we are in fact, in the middle of the middle of the lake?" She asked Jonathan, with a worried tone in her voice.
"On the contrary." Jonathan responded to her, "This would be the best time for us to be able to reach it."
He continued by recalling that the mothership had four wings spanned all across its lateral body, to which Ryan, Kyle, and I confirmed. He then said that if the tide had risen high enough that we could reach one of the wings, then it would also mean that we could get inside and infiltrate the mothership the similar way we get into the aircraft, assuming there was also an access above the wing.
"And besides," Jonathan paused, before he continued, "If they have just stabilized the mothership today, whereas they did not previously, then that will most likely mean that they are doing something very important inside it. And that will also mean that they have most of their attentions and concentrations focused at whatever it is they are doing."
With him finished explaining, I noticed that everyone had become settled and determined again. The only downside was, even though everyone had regained their composure and calmness again, I felt like the deep silence had started to surround the boat as a trade. I could not mind however, since it would be better for each of us to keep our strength by keeping silence, as opposed to a restless or even a panic uproar.
After some long while, I asked Ryan to light my watch and told us on what it was then, to which he said that it was 00.20 a.m., nearly midnight. Just as I nodded and Ryan was about to put his flashlight back into his pocket and continue to paddle I noticed something in large size at the distance. I told the rest of them what I had seen, and we immediately stopped rowing as we all turned to the direction of the thing.
"We have arrived…" Jonathan said, as he turned his position facing the same direction as I did and paddled slowly.
Captain Quentin told us that since the distance was already very near, only he and Jonathan were to paddle until we could get right beside one of their wings. The rest of the four of us were to standby our firearms and flashlight towards the same direction.
Little by little, we eventually got closer to the wing until it was literally just beside the boat, only about close to six feet above the boat thanks to the rise in the lake water tide. Jonathan first gave boost to Ryan to climb up to the wing, followed by Kyle, and then Della. I then lifted up each of our backpacks to the top of the wing, before I also climbed up myself. Captain Quentin and Jonathan were the last ones to climb up respectively.
"Okay, so now what?" Della said, as she readied her handgun.
"A bit of arson in the middle of the lake." Captain Quentin responded, as he opened up his backpack.
He then proceeded to take out each one of the small ropes, match stick, and duct-taped canister, as he continued to assemble them into an incendiary IED. He made the hole at the center of the duct tape by using Ryan's folding knife, and inserted the small ropes through the hole before lighting it up by using the lit up match stick. As he had finished, he threw it into the boat, quickly setting it ablaze, before telling us that we had to wait for any access to open up, and to take down any aliens that might come out silently.
All of us then took our combat position facing the wall at the end of the wing with all of our melee weapons pointed at the wall. Very shortly after, I began to hear very familiar thudding sounds from beneath the wall. I crouched as I readied my fire ax to attack whatever it was that seemed to be approaching us from the opposite of the wall, and Kyle took aim with one of her two last arrows.
Just then, the wall suddenly lifted up partially, and all of us immediately hit the creature that had just emerged. When I came to, I realized we just took down the regular alien, with an arrow stuck to its head, as well as a viscous black liquid gushed out from the deep cut caused by my fire ax on its lower torso. As it collapsed, we rushed inside the opened wall which did not seem to close down again perhaps due to the alien's dead body obstructing it partially, and forcing it to remain opened.
"And now, at least we have an entrance and an exit access…" Jonathan said, as he stopped.
The six of us then ventured deeper, with no more than about two feet away from each other and a very tense atmosphere around us. As we kept on walking, I began to wonder if we could in fact somehow stop everything that they had been doing and prevented them to make things worse…