It must have been only five minutes or even less after we had begun to walk again when we began to be able to see some sort of a massive metallic facility in the distance to the north direction, which was exactly straight ahead of us. From where we were standing, it did not look like any sort of dam at all. However then again, we would be able to be more certain once we took a closer distance towards the building.
As we had walked for another five minutes, the building, or rather what remained of it was finally able to be seen more clearly. From what I could see, the dam had so much rusty spots, showing its obsolescence, but somehow it was still able to hold the rushing waters before they flowed down to the lower levels of the river. The facility however, seemed to be in a better condition than the mine station earlier, at least slightly.
"I suppose that is the dam that we are looking for?" I said to Billy.
"Yes… Extremely…" he responded to me, while clearly showing out a disappointed expression.
Perhaps Billy expected the dam to be still in a good condition, instead of realizing that the facility was already on its way to destruction by the nature. If that was the case, I could completely understand him. He probably thought that the dam was still in a much better condition that we would not have to worry we could break any stuffs inside the dam that could harm us in any sorts of possible ways. Although still a little better than the mine station, the facility still looked like it could collapse at any time.
Shortly after, we reached the entrance gate to the dam. It was a small and rusted gate, and it only took a couple of kicks to collapse it to the ground before we can finally enter the area of the facility. I immediately took a closer and more detailed look at the dam once all of us had passed through the gate.
First things first, even though there were so many rusty spots on the dam, the facility still seemed to be still completely intact based on the sturdy concrete walls that had yet to have any visible holes. It had three water gates, all with same sizes of probably around ten feet wide. Looking by how it looked, I assumed that the dam was perhaps built around late 1920s to early 1940s.
The dam also had the height of perhaps close to thirty feet, which was not too high but also not short either for the size of a small dam. It spanned around the same length of the distance we needed to get across the river earlier, which was roughly forty feet. When I looked at it more closely, the dam seemed to be actually built with more concrete materials rather than metals, as the rusty parts that we had seen earlier turned out to be mostly the stained concrete by the rusted metallic structures.
As it turned out, my assumption was correct since we shortly came across a partially rusted signboard with the writings of the dam's inauguration date, showing the year 1931. The signboard however, was written fully in Dutch, and not a single Indonesian word could be identified there, therefore confirming that it was also built during the Dutch colonization era.
We finally arrived right in front of one an entrance door to the dam. I pushed the door very gently with my submachine gun until we could enter the interior of the dam as Billy took his alert position. I could almost instantly pick up a combination of rusty and moldy smell Just as the three of us entered, further confirming that no one had come to the dam to maintain it, let alone come inside for a very long period of time.
"Okay, now… we search for a stairs, two maybe… and then we find the exit to the higher grounds before we find a place to rest for a bit." Billy said to the two of us.
"I agree…." I responded to him, as I began to feel a slight fatigue inside me once I heard the 'rest' word from him.
The interior of the room had plenty of molds growing on the walls, especially on the edges where they met the ceilings and the floors. The mold smell must have been coming from them and it just made me, and supposedly both Billy and Jessica also felt the exact same thing. Thankfully, after several steps ahead we noticed that there was a large spiral stairs on one of the corners of the room, which seemingly connected to the lower and higher floors.
"Ugh, about time we moved on from this room…" Jessica griped as she approached the spiral stairs.
"Alright. You go on ahead…" I said to her, considering what she had been through earlier on the bridge as I patted her back.
Billy only nodded once to me as a response. Jessica then slowly and very carefully ascended the stairs as the two of us looked at her while I hoped to myself that the stairs would not collapse. I was both relieved and disappointed when I heard she said that the condition of the floor above us was worse as she had ascended the stairs.
"You guys will probably not going to like what I see here…" Jessica said to the two of us from above us.
"Let us just hope that whatever you see will not hinder us at any sort…" I responded to her
After that, I gave the next turn to ascend the stairs to Billy, as I also worried that the stairs could collapse if the two of us were to go to the next floor at once since it was already rusted pretty badly. I also gave him a pat in his back as he began to ascend the stairs. I looked around as he continued ascending the stairs, and noticed that there was another rusty door in front of me in the distance of perhaps twelve feet. Aside from that, there were only a couple of what seemed to be control panels, both also pretty much rusted and most likely no longer functioning.
'clack clack PLANG'
The door right in front of me in the distance suddenly collapsed inside, and just then I could see, even for just barely, a couple of what seemed to be silhouettes of the flying aliens. At first, I could not be sure on how I could see them, but then on a split second it occurred to me that it could probably because of the splashing of the water current of the higher lever river.
"Bill! Go!" I shouted to him, as I rushed away from the stairs.
Just then, both of the silhouettes suddenly disappeared in a blink of an eye. I quickly aimed my submachine gun towards their last location, while at the same time I desperately thought of any possible way of at least hindering their camouflage.
It was at that moment when I realized that I could make a hole at the rusted metallic parts of the structures, and hope that a small stream of water would burst out from it and sprayed the aliens should they come near the streams. The only way to make the hole was none other than to shoot them.
I immediately rushed towards the nearest metallic structure-an exposed rusted metal plating of the concrete wall just about four feet away from me. I ran as fast as I could, and just after I passed the metal plating, I fired my submachine gun towards it a few times, creating holes on its surface and bursting out small streams of water almost instantly.
'THUB THUB THUB THUB'
Perhaps it took only barely a second before the burst of waters betrayed one of the aliens' camouflage. It came rushing right towards me and was about to slash me with its beam spear just as I sled down and evaded its weapon. I immediately turned around, still on crouching position and fired my submachine gun again directly against its wings until it fell down to the floor, and almost immediately gushed out its black viscous blood.
Then, it shocked me to my core when I saw a large shadow suddenly closed in on the floor and towards me. I rolled over three times towards my right direction, which was almost immediately followed by a concrete floor breaking sound. When I got up, I realized that it was none other than the other alien that was about to impale me with its beam spear.
'PANG PANG PANG PANG PANG'
The other alien collapsed immediately after several rounds were fired towards it. I turned around to realize that it was Billy who had made the shots.
"Come on! We have to hurry!" he said as he ascended the stairs again in rush.
Thankfully, by the time I reached the stairs Billy was already on the next floor. Thus, I rushed upstairs to see that both he and Jessica were already on alert and had their weapons ready. As we were in the condition where the aliens had known our location, we no longer need the necessity to use a silent weapon in order to evade or counter them.
Unlike the previous floor below us, the one we were currently on had several more equipment and features there most notably the presence of gears, chains, and levers, as well as several more control panels, although all of them were also already rusted pretty badly. There was no more stairs that continued for the next upper floors at the same spot. Instead the next stairs was about ten feet away from the previous one.
"You guys hold those monsters off! I will see if the next floor is secured!" Jessica said as she rushed upstairs.
"Roger!" I responded to her as I shot several metallic structures on the current floor, creating several small bursts of water.
"Smart move…" Billy said to me as he smiled and chuckled, "You never cease to amaze me, Travis…" and proceeded to also make several holes using his submachine gun.
"Thanks. I appreciate it…" I answered him as I constantly aimed towards the previous stairs, and then the blank spacious room about twelve feet away from where we were standing.
I also took a few steps back as I kept on aiming the two different spots. Very shortly after, Jessica came back rushing from upstairs, strangely with a rather more terrified expression towards us.
"The other ones are coming towards us…" Jessica said, staring blankly towards the metallic structures.
"Then we need to hurry and go-…" I responded to her before she immediately cut off my words.
"Tens… of them…" she told us, before she paused for a moment and finally giving out her frustrated expression again.
Right at that moment, Billy stared very sharply towards both of my eyes, resulting in the two of us speechless and me clueless on what we should do next. To clarify on how badly cornered we were, I asked Jessica very carefully on everything that she saw upstairs with all the details that she could recall.
She started by telling us that the next floor was actually the top floor of the dam, and there was literally nothing there except for a pretty narrow path to walk towards the higher grounds, and the door which obviously connected to the stairs. The other end of the path was merely a dead end.
I then asked on how she could see tens of the aliens, and she answered by saying that she just could see them very clearly as if they were not activating their camouflage, a sentence which left both Billy and me in total confusion. Billy immediately asked if the river current on the next floor was so strong that it created many water splashes, to which she responded by answering that if it was she would be pretty much wet by the time she went down again, an answer which completely made sense.
"So they really are aiming to finish us here to prevent us from going further. That is why they do not care anymore about their camouflage." I stuttered, as I still had yet to find any idea on how to escape from our dire situation.
Almost immediately after that, Billy seemed to be suddenly come across something since he gave out some sort of a surprised expression. He then asked Jessica to borrow her lighter, to which she was confused on what he could be planning on.
"Jess. Lu punya korek api 'kan? Billy asked her for her lighter, in a rushed tone.
Jessica only responded by quickly giving him her lighter, still with a confused expression. Billy then took out two dynamites from his backpack, before he began to rush right towards the middle of the metallic structures and seemed to proceed to light the dynamites.
At first, I could not even grasp a tiny bit of what he might be thinking. However, merely seconds after that, I immediately realized that he was going to blow the metallic structures by using the dynamites, perhaps in order to create a much larger burst water stream to spray and hinder the movements of the aliens or perhaps even stopping them from pursuing us further. However, that would also mean that we definitely could not go to the higher grounds from the dam anymore.
"Bill, what are you doing?!" I asked him as I was getting a little more distressed as each second passed by.
"The only thing left that we can do!" he answered me almost instantly after I finished asking.
He finished sticking the dynamites each on one of the gears and levers, but had yet to light any of them. I understood completely however, that he might be most likely wait for the right timing to blow them up.
"Hey." I said to him, trying to confirm if his idea was the only option we have. "If we blow those things out, we will not be able to get to the higher grounds anymore. Worst case scenario, the explosion can destroy the whole dam!"
"I am aware of that..." Billy said as he sighed and had his expression seemed to turn from terrified to very frightened in a very short moment. "But if we time it very correctly, perhaps we can take some of them down as we escape through the previous entrance door…"
"And the river tsunami that will be formed if the dam ended up getting destroyed?" I asked him, still was not assured by his idea.
"Honestly?" Billy finally turned to me straight to my eyes, looking completely frightened, "I do not know about that…"
I finally nodded twice in acceptance that we did not have any clear solution to escape from our dire situation. I then immediately turned towards Jessica, who was strangely seemed to be a little less frightened than Billy, but still very terrified nonetheless before I approached her.
"Travis…" she said to me with a low and worried voice.
"Just… stay close to me." I said to her as she nodded in accordance.
Both Jessica and I then aimed our firearms towards the stairs leading to the top floor, while Billy on my left side was standing by and waited to light the dynamites. Very shortly after, we could hear a loud clanking sound directly from the direction of the stairs, followed by a very loud metal creaking noise, most probably an indication that the aliens were walking down through the stairs and not flying.
"Bill…" I said to Billy, signaling if the time to light the dynamite had come.
"No… not yet…" Billy responded to me as he began to crouch.
The metal creaking noise kept on getting heard by us, and almost immediately after that a giant pair of feet stepping down the stairs began to be seen by us. It continued to descend the stairs until we could finally see the full and complete figure of the flying alien, standing right ahead of us next to the stairs. I turned to Billy again to see if he would light the dynamite after seeing it, to which he shook his head once as a signal of saying 'not yet' to me.
'crank creank PLANGGG'
Suddenly, some parts of the ceiling around the stairs and the stairs itself collapsed, followed almost instantly by a very loud booming sound and a vibration after what seemed to be a large group of massive things fell, or rather landed on the floor. The strange thing was, Billy immediately rushed to light the dynamites right away after he heard the noise, and not after the things landed.
Very shortly after, it was revealed that the massive things were actually the aliens that had grouped up and attempted to wipe us all out. I looked for a glance towards the group, and just like Jessica had said earlier, their numbers reached tens, about twelve or thirteen.
"Okay, now step back you guys… but please do it very very slowly…" Billy said to the two of us in a low voice.
All three of us did just like what he said, but still had all our firearms pointed towards the group of the aliens, still did not seem to show any signs that they would go into camouflaged mode again. I could feel countless of my sweat were gathering on my back and my heart pounded fast as I continued on very slowly moved backwards.
Then, all of a sudden, one of the aliens leapt towards us. Both Jessica and I opened fire towards it, costing us several of our bullets before it collapsed down to the floor. Almost instantly after that, the whole group began on charging towards us. It was then when Billy told us all to take cover.
"Take cover!" Billy shouted as he ran away from the gears and levers.
'GA-BANGG!! GA-BANGG!!'
The loud explosion sound from the dynamites somehow sort of made my ears rang for a little, but nevertheless I managed to kept on staying close to Jessica in all of that moment. To the least of my expectation and to my surprise, as I turned around I saw some of the aliens were being washed away by the sudden strong and massive stream caused by the large holes created by the explosion, down to the lower levels of the river through another hole that was created on the other wall, which was formerly a mere rusted broken windows.
Apparently, the water burst that was created was so strong that it was able to tear away some parts of the rusted windows and walls and wide enough to force the aliens to be washed away down through the hole. Whether we were lucky or it was thanks to Billy's calculation and timing, we were all saved thanks to his decision. Unfortunately for us, another misfortune approached us almost immediately.
A small portion of the walls on the side of the remaining gears and levers suddenly began to crack and a very small stream of water began to pour out. Then, a second one followed to emerge after yet another crack, and then the third and fourth one, indicating the signs of the dam beginning to collapse as well.
"Okay…" I said to the both Billy and Jessica. "Now, we have to get out, fast!"
All three of us then proceeded to rush downstairs by using the very same one that we used to ascend to the current floor. It seemed that none of us cared anymore if the stairs would collapse at any moment since we were all rushing down at the exact same time. I just hoped that we could make it in time to get out of the dam…