Bad luck seemed to no longer willing to bother us, as there were literally no more obstructions whatsoever that was blocking our way to the village after we had crossed the river. Sure, the ground and soil of the trail that we were walking on to head there was sticky, but at least it was not slippery in the slightest.
To make it better, apparently what Billy might had thought was also correct since there were no signs of any aliens nearby as we were getting closer to the village. Of course, we still did not let down our alerts as we walked on the sticky soiled ground, and we did it rather slowly. It was not until twenty minutes before we had reached one of the side entrances to the village.
"I wonder what clues we will find here…" Billy said as he stopped for a moment, crouched and prepared his submachine gun.
"If anything significant…" I responded to him as I also did the same things.
The first thing that I noticed right away was that there was not even a single sign of a civilian activity present at the village. I could only hear the rainfall noise as the two of us slowly and carefully scouted the whole area. Tens of minimalist houses, several parked off-road and light-duty vehicles, but no signs of a presence of a person. Even though the Special Forces Command had evacuated the whole village, we still had to make sure if anyone had somehow missed the evacuation and decided to hide in their home.
Based on what I had seen while I was scouting with Billy, the village had no more than twenty five or thirty houses, with most of the roofs were made out of black-colored clay. As I had guessed, Billy told me that the clay roofs were coated by the villagers with ashes in order to insulate the heat inside the respective houses. The purpose was to minimize the heat generated inside the houses to escape, especially when it was in rainy season since each time after rain had stopped, mist would be formed and the temperature would be much colder.
Then, two of the houses which were standing quite near to the village middle field caught my attention. Not only they had considerably larger size and area, they were also apparently the only two houses that had four floors, while the rest of the others had mostly only two or even one, with very few some had three. Aside from the significant differences, the two of us also noticed right away that they were the only houses that had sustained damages, which were most possibly made when the village was attacked by the aliens.
"Should we go there and check?" I asked Billy as I turned to him.
"We will. But I think we better make sure that the rest of the other houses are clear first." he responded to me, as he began to move closer to the nearest house.
We started to check the first house, which had two floors. I felt bad at first for entering the house without the permission of its owner, and dirtying each floor with our muddy footsteps in the process. Nevertheless, the house was unlocked in the first place, and besides it was indeed for safety measures and international investigation.
We then continued to the second, third, and to dozens of houses only to find absolutely no new clues. I was starting to think if we were just wasting our time there and should just proceed to the two big houses, when suddenly an extremely surprising sound was heard.
'BZZZT'
It was a rather loud sound like a large thing was electrocuted heard directly from the entrance door of the current house we were in. In reflex, both Billy and I aimed our submachine guns towards the corridor right before the room we were in, which was a kitchen. It was indeed hard for us to guess what caused the sound, but somehow I could not shake the very high possibility that it was one of the aliens.
Apparently, Billy also thought of the same thing. He then rushed to the large bowl sitting on the kitchen sink and began to fill it full with tap water. When the bowl was half full, I became completely aware that he was planning to flush whatever it was off-guard. If it was indeed an alien, the water would at least briefly stain its camouflage inside the house and then we could take it down while we still knew where it was standing.
Since Billy's footprints were already scattered all around the kitchen floor, I decided to crawl and hid behind the kitchen wall just before the corridor, in order to not create any footprints. Billy also proceeded to hid behind the wall right across of me once the bowl was full. Just then, dampened footsteps were heard from the same direction where the sound had come from.
I tightened my grip on my submachine gun as the footsteps were getting clearer each time. I looked at Billy, and he seemed to have also ready to throw all of the water inside the bowl as well. I could also even feel my heart pounded faster each time the footsteps were getting louder, as well as sweats began to run down through my back even though it was quite cold due to the heavy rain.
'pudh pudH puDH pUDH PUDH'
The very last footstep was heard just from the other side of the wall we were hiding. Both Billy and I looked at each other in reflex, and I nodded to him as a signal that I was ready, to which he also responded it with his nod. Very shortly after, the next footsteps were already heard coming from inside the kitchen. Without any further waiting, Billy immediately moved away from the wall, and threw all of the water inside the bowl directly to the direction of the last footsteps.
'SPLASH'
We were extremely surprised, but somehow sort of expected, when the water that ran down through the alien briefly revealed its form. The creature also seemed to be shocked as it looked like it did not expect at all that we realized water would betray its hidden presence. I then quickly aimed my submachine gun towards the alien's back, since it currently had its full attention towards Billy.
'thub thub thub thub thub thub'
It took me six shots before it fell hard down to the ground right in front of where Billy was standing. With the alien then dead, the both of us could then be completely sure that unless they were splashed by water, or seen from underwater their presence could not be determined. It also made me realized that the aliens must have yet to leave the village since not too long after our arrivals, one of them searched and pursued for us. Billy then told me his concern about our current situations, especially since the rain had yet to stop.
"I wonder if the rest of the others are also already aware of our presence in this house…" Billy told me.
"That means they do not want any of us to leave this house." I responded to him, conveying my realization.
"Exactly, but if that is the case… I have yet to see the others waiting for us outside…" Billy replied to me as he looked outside through the kitchen window.
Billy's concern was completely logical. On one hand, if the aliens indeed wanted to trap us inside the house, I would buy the possibility that they were waiting for us outside. Obviously, they would rather be able to be seen as opposed to not being able to move, let alone fly freely inside a tiny building with very tight spaces, and that would mean that there were no more aliens inside the house we were currently in.
However, if that was indeed the case, then we also had one question remained to be answered – where are the rest of the other aliens? Surely, it would be impossible if there was one single alien strayed away from its group and somehow decided to take down its enemies all by itself. Even if we were to assume that the others indeed force themselves to take shelter inside the houses in order to not be seen, then that would mean that we should have encountered at the very least a few more of them earlier when we were clearing dozens of houses.
"Well? Should we just go to the big houses now, then?" I told Billy, as it seemed that we were no longer sure of what we should do next.
"I cannot see any other options, so yeah." Billy responded to me as he gestured 'let us go' with his hand.
We went out from the house, and were greeted again by the rain outside. Either if it was due to us being inside the house for quite some time or I was feeling it correctly, the rate of the rain seemed to be lighter then. However, since Billy had not said anything again just yet I just ignored it and assumed that it was just my feeling.
The trail to the big houses was not too far, and only a little uphill. Even though the trail was pretty much still a soil ground, it was not that uphill that we could slip and slide down back to where the trail started. However, something then began to make us panic.
It was not because the both of us slid down the trail, nor because the big houses were scary to look at a closer distance. It was the rain stop. With no source of water whatsoever that we could use in order to stain the aliens' camouflage there was absolutely no way for us to make sure if any of them were nearby.
In reflex, the both of us then rushed towards the big houses, not really caring anymore if the aliens figured out if we had found out their camouflage weakness. Just then, branch-cracking and whooshing sounds were also starting to be heard, indicating that the aliens were also pursuing us and were getting closer to us.
Very shortly after, we had arrived just several feet away from the entrance door to one of the big houses. However, the following sounds did not seem to fade out. Instead they were getting more vivid. Desperate, I began to look for something or anything that could be used to at least made them stop following us.
It was then when I noticed that there was a large water storage tank tower near the entrance door. It then occurred to me immediately if we could somehow reached right at the bottom of it and made some holes using our firearms then any nearing aliens could be seen, and that would mean that we had a chance of taking them down instead.
"Bill! The water tower!" I told Billy, as we were still running.
"Good plan! Better than nothing!" Billy responded to me, seemingly aware or at least had an idea of what I was going to do.
We immediately rushed towards the water tank, and just as we arrived right below the tank, Billy aimed his submachine gun upwards and shot a few rounds. Very shortly after, water began to pour down from the storage tank. As I turned back, there was already an alien just about to attack us with its beam spear. Very fortunately for me, I was able to aim in time and put several rounds inside its head before it collapsed and no longer moving.
The second, third and fourth alien suddenly appeared and leapt towards us at nearly the same time. Billy then did his horizontal sweep firing technique, which was the one that he usually used whenever he was clearing a right room with large numbers of enemies towards the aliens. It quickly made all three of them fell to the ground but not yet dead, and so I quickly fired several rounds to each of them, ending their lives for good.
With four of the pursuing aliens dead, we had yet to see any other aliens approaching us inside the water tank raining area. With the whooshing sounds still heard although less clearer, I believed that there were still a few aliens waiting for us just outside the raining area. However, both Billy and I also were not willing to spray our firearms outside as it would most likely ended in wasting ammunition rather than actually hitting the aliens.
"Cover me…" Billy said as he began to change his submachine gun magazine.
I then aimed my submachine gun towards the surroundings outside as he was still changing the magazine. However, just as he was about to pull the cocking handle, an alien rushed in and butted him hard down to the point that he dropped his submachine gun. I was about to aim the alien holding him down and slowly reaching its beam spear, when another alien also butted me down hard, forcing me to lose my grip on my submachine gun.
"Urgh!" I groaned, realizing that they had planned their movements in the first place.
I struggled hard to hold the alien's arms with my left arm, as I was desperately trying to reach for my submachine gun. However it was to no avail since every single time I tried to release my right arm, the force from its arms got harder in pinning me down, making it easier to reach its beam spear.
'This is it? Is this where everything will end miserably?' I thought to myself as the beam spear was slowly pushed towards my body.
'BTOOM BTOOM BTOOM BTOOM'
The alien holding me down suddenly could no longer move, and instead it fell down to the ground, lying lifelessly right under the water storage tank. The other alien pinning down Billy earlier was also suddenly dead. Apparently, the four shots that were heard earlier came from a firearm, fired by someone else nearby.
"Cepat! Masuk ke dalam!" said a young lady from the second floor balcony of the big house.
I then helped Billy to get up, and we rushed inside the house as I could no longer hear any branch-cracking and whooshing sounds. As we closed the door, both of us breathed deep and hard, realizing that we had escaped yet another desperate life-threatening situation. After a few moments, I began to regain my composure, and thus we could start to adjust ourselves with a whole different possible situation ahead of us…