I did not know for how long it had been that we had been running from the slaughtering zone, before my legs began to notify me that I had been running for several minutes then. Unlike how it was until exactly two years before, I would no longer have any problems anymore if I ran for a long duration even on uneven terrains. I also looked at my watch, and realized that the time was then 11.13 a.m.
"Wait hold on…" I said, as I stopped and drooped a little while I panted quite hard.
"No more signs of their presence. At least for now, that is." Billy responded, also panting hard.
I took few deep and long breaths before I could begin to regain my composure, and let my heart pounded more slowly. After about three to five minutes, Billy also had become completely calm while the four Special Forces Command men also seemed to be no longer in confusion as they had been some tens of minutes earlier. Since every single person there had regained the capability to be fully alert and aware of our surroundings, I suggested everyone to crouch and slowly and carefully looked in more details of our new surroundings. Everyone especially Billy immediately agreed.
If our previous standing ground was a quite steep and a rather soft-surfaced slope, the current ground we were standing then was plainer and more even. There were two completely different things however – that there were stones and large sturdy rocks nearby on our current position, as well as a faint sound of water stream, indicating that there could be a waterfall or river somewhere not too far. The rocks could become our advantages when we had to hide ourselves from the sights of the aliens. The river stream sound however, could hide any faint noises that might be created by approaching aliens.
Billy then asked again one of the Special Forces Command soldiers who had a radio to the Army Base with him if he could contact the Commander General again. Fully realizing that the radio was not of obsolete technology, I strongly advised both of them to not try contacting their Army Base. Even after my brief explanation about what had happened in Chicago three years ago, all of the Special Forces Command soldiers apparently still could not bring themselves to consider my advice. Billy however, brought up another question to me regarding any alternative solution for their communications.
"Then what do you suggest?" Billy asked me, surprisingly without any hint of disagreement in his tone.
"Look, I will try to contact Commodore Quentin again. Once he responds, I will request him to see if he can directly contact the Army Base and made the Equipment Developments Chief somehow altered your watch to their communications system instead." I responded to his question as I turned at the soldiers.
"Very well." He replied to me. "But if either the watch did not work, or your Direct Supervisor cannot grant the request, then we will have no choice but to try contacting with the radio."
I nodded at his words, and quickly conveyed the message to Commodore Quentin. When I finished, there was no immediate response from him. At first, we waited for one minute, and then another, until it was more than five minutes of waiting. The radio soldier had just touched his radio and I was about to gesture to him to wait for a little longer, when my watch finally blinked and vibrated.
Unlike before, apparently Commodore Quentin did not bother to express his surprise and just sent a message that said he would immediately contact the Army Base and informed both the Commander General and the Equipment Developments Chief about the situation. As I forwarded the Morse code message to Billy and the four soldiers, they finally showed some relieved expressions. We also eventually decided to move from our current position by following the trails of the pebbled grounds. However, just less than five minutes after we had started walking again, things turned worse again.
It was the sound of cracking branch, and must be a louder one since we could all hear it very clearly despite the more vivid sound of water stream at where we were standing. What made us completely on alert was that the branch-cracking sound was not only heard once, but multiple times, all with each sound getting louder little by little.
In reflex, I signaled all of them to hide behind any nearby large rocks. I also immediately brought my body down to the pebbled grounds, holding the mild and bumpy pain on my body and skin as I crawled quickly but carefully to one of the large but considerably shorter rock than the others. When I had safely arrived behind the rock, it turned out that the radio soldier was also hiding right behind the rock next to the one I was hiding at. I also noticed that we had in fact arrived at a rather shallow but clear river, that perhaps had less than five feet of depth.
To make our current cornered situation worse, not only the branch-cracking sounds were still heard clearly, but whooshing sounds in the air were also began to be heard. At first, I thought that I was the only one who heard it somehow due to my anxiety and restlessness. However, as I also noticed the expressions of Billy as well as the other soldiers, I assumed that they also heard the sounds since they all gave out a seriously anxious expressions.
Thinking that the aliens were approaching us and getting closer in every second, I finally decided to crawl slowly to the river shore, and to see if I could somehow cross to the other side of the river, even though it was quite wide with most likely more than three times of its depth for its width. I began by crawling backwards towards the shore, and fortunately it only took me several backward crawls before I could begin to feel the water on both of my feet.
All of the soldiers, including Billy looked at me, perhaps in confusion as to what I was trying to do. I did not bother their reactions however, since I also plan to assist them if I turned out succeeded in crossing the river. Then shortly, half of my body had begun to be submerged in the river water, and then up to my chest, until it was only my head that had yet to be submerged. I took a very long deep breath before I finally dipped my head under the cold, chilly clear water.
As soon as I had my whole head under the river surface, I was brought to a huge shock that I had nearly lost some of my breaths. It was the vision of a completely clear sight of the whereabouts of the aliens that nearly made me let out water bubbles that would most likely gave my position to the aliens which could result in the end of my own life as a result. It was also as both Billy and I had predicted before, that the aliens were of a completely different kind than the previous alien commander, and instead they were of a new winged variant.
I crawled back slowly to the surface, but only to the point where only my neck would went out of the water. As all of the soldiers and Billy looked at me immediately as I resurfaced, I signaled them to follow me into the river. Of course, none of them followed me right away, but that was until I gave them another signal that I could have a completely clear vision of their positions.
I was not sure if they got my signal correctly, but since Billy followed me by backward crawling after he gave out a disbelief frown, at least one person decided to see it for himself. Thankfully, one by one the soldiers also began to do the same, probably thinking that it would be safer underwater instead of behind the rocks providing that we did not let out any single air bubble that could gave out our positions. I also signaled the radio soldier to drop his radio right behind the rocks before he started to backward crawl, since I also thought that it could be the thing that caused the aliens catching up to us.
I waited a little longer until all of them had either at least had their chest or neck submerged underwater, before I took another long deep breath and had my head submerged again. Just as I had expected, Billy who was crawling underwater right beside me on my right side was also shocked when he realized that we had a completely clear vision of the aliens. I covered his mouth with my left hand as soon as I saw his eyes bugged out to the unbelievable sights, to prevent any air bubbles from going out to the river surface.
Very shortly after, I signaled everyone that we could counter-fire the aliens from underwater, although that we had to do it simultaneously in order to make sure that none of the aliens would be able to know that we were all submerged. The only thing that we had to do then was to wait for the aliens to be all visible. However, another thing came to my mind at that exact moment.
Most trained military personnel could only hold their breath for an average of around three minutes for non-Navy branches, and three for Navy branch. As the time was still moving on, almost one minute had passed since we had been submerged. I just hoped that all of the aliens would already be visible before another minute passed.
Thankfully and strangely, two of the aliens which were already close enough to the rock where the radio soldiers had been hiding at before, seemed to notice that there was a high technology device left there. Apparently they reached out to the other aliens, as very shortly after another alien flew and approached them, and then another, and until there were at least seven aliens gathered there.
One of the soldiers apparently was about to be out of breath, as he suddenly aimed his assault rifle towards the aliens. However, Billy stopped him, and signaled that we should wait for ten to fifteen more seconds. As I looked at my watch, it turned out that two minutes indeed had just passed.
Billy's decision turned out to be the right choice to make, as there were another two aliens approached the group. He gestured both of his hands and signaled everyone that the numbers of the aliens were approximately ten. I was not sure if there were more aliens yet to approach the group again, but since almost another thirty seconds had passed, I finally decided to begin the counter-fire. As I took aim with my submachine gun and opened its bolt cover, I really hoped that it also had been modified so it could fire underwater by the Equipment Developments Chief.
'Thub thub thub thub thub thub'
'Pag pag pag pag pag pag'
We opened fire to the aliens on the surface, completely unaware of presence and gave them a whole barrage of bullets. I fired for nearly ten seconds before the magazine was empty, and even though I did not see the other soldiers and Billy, I could be completely sure that all of them also emptied their magazines. When we ceased fire, none of the aliens were seen flying anymore.
I hurried to the surface as I felt that I was also nearly out of breath, and as my head was no longer underwater, I coughed up as hard as I could twice before I took several deep and long breaths. It took me quite some time before I could begin to regain my normal breath, and realized that Billy as well as the four soldiers had crawled out completely to the shore, catching their breaths heavily. As I looked at my watch again, it turned out that we had in fact spent more than three and a half minutes underwater, meaning that we had just been submerged for nearly four minutes.
"How… did you… figure… it out…?" Billy said to me, as he was still desperately catching his breath and crawled to where I was holding myself up against the shore.
"I did not…" I answered him, still trying to catch my breath. "I intended… to cross the river…"
That being said, I could sense a huge gratitude from Billy based on how he said his question to me. One of the soldiers who just then turned to me also nodded at me as he was still breathing deeply, indicating that he was thankful of what I had made them done. It also came as a relieve for me to know that there appeared to be no more flying stealthy aliens anymore nearby, at least not at that moment. I also realized that the very next thing to do was to inform Commodore Quentin and looked at the creatures that were trying to slaughter us in more details, but not until I had completely catch my breath again…