I could not see the figures very clearly since I did not have my glasses on, but I was definitely sure that most of the aliens were rushing towards the very spot where the dead body was lying. There were no more than three aliens that seemed to be standing on guard near the jungle, and not even a single of them that was flying around. It made me began to wonder if they lack their ability to fly when their wings were completely wet.
"I suppose they seem to not be able to fly at all in this kind of weather, huh…" I said.
"I am relieved that none of us were surprised to see that…" Billy responded, implying that he had also thought about it before.
"So, how are we supposed to fight or get away from them?" Jessica asked with a low voice.
"I have an idea." I told the two of them.
I began by stating that the current weather had a constant strong wind that blew at least once in every few minutes. With each wind blow, the grasses always rustled violently in random directions. If we were to crouch and only move when the grasses rustled, then we could camouflage our movement from the aliens, avoiding their detection in the process.
However, I also stated the hole in my suggestion. I still had not come up with the idea on how to evade one or few aliens that might come too close to where we were crouching as there was still a possibility that they could see us if they got too close to us. It might not be too much of a problem if the alien nearby was only one, but more than that and we would have a hard time in creating a distance from them. Fortunately, Billy came up with a possible solution shortly after.
The solution was none other than to take down the aliens that came nearby. He explained that aside from wind, thunder also rumbled once in a while although with a more unpredictable time pattern. The thing was, it would always be seen a few seconds before it was heard, meaning that if we could somehow shoot or stab them right after the lightning was seen and made sure that their dead body fell to the ground right when the rumbling sound was heard, then we could hide the noise of the thudding sound caused by the fall of the dead bodies.
His solution seemed to be the perfect answer for the hole in my suggestion, except for two things – how could we be completely sure that no other aliens would see their other teammates being taken down one by one, and what to do if there were more than three aliens nearby us. Those two things really concerned me, but Billy could provide me with his thoughts.
He explained that we should only take them down when we were also hidden behind one of the large rocks. Surprisingly, there were indeed similar tall rocks like the one we used to hide behind earlier scattered around the meadows, and all of them seemed to be large enough for us to hide. For the worst case scenario if one or few aliens managed to hear a thudding sound, we could still made some distance away from the large rocks before they found out that one of their teammates had been taken down.
As for the case where there could more than three aliens approaching our direction, he said that we would have no choice but to stop moving at all and either wait for them to go further away from us or to wait for the strong wind to blow and made the grasses rustled before we could move again. He did however, pointed out clearly that we would most likely have to hold our breaths as well if it indeed happened in order to make sure that we did not make any sounds that could give away our position.
"Thanks for asking those questions." Billy said to me. "I actually have a serious doubt on my solution."
"It does not look like we have any other choices at the moment, though." I responded to him.
"Exactly…" He sighed, before he then signaled us to begin crouching behind the large rock that we used to hide.
We immediately commenced the plan which was the combination of both my idea and his solution right after strong wind blew all over the grassy meadow. We crouched as fast as we could, with Billy leading in front, me in the middle, and Jessica followed right behind me. At first, I could not see any familiar blurry figure as I continued to crouch and follow Billy, but I believe it was not until thirty seconds before I realized that there were at least three aliens present on the far right of our direction.
I could not see for sure, but apparently the three aliens were already starting to look for something that had caused the death of their teammates. So far as it had gone, they had not realized that the ones who had taken it down were still in the very same grassy meadow, but it also did not mean that it would take a long time for them before they found out.
"Okay, stop!" Billy said with a low voice, just as the wind had stopped blowing.
I quickly readied my submachine gun just as he told us to hold our position. With our surroundings covered almost entirely by tall grasses, we really had to rely on our hearings as well as any signs of thudding sound, which was an indication of their footsteps. I was initially rather anxious, but as each seconds and minutes passed and there had not been any unusual noises or thudding sounds, I could slowly put myself to ease.
We might have been waiting for nearly five minutes before the wind blew again and Billy gave us the signal to move again. At first, I was not sure where Billy had decided to take us to, but that was until I noticed a large rock in the distance on our far right direction. Unfortunately, I was not able to guess how far we were to the rock since I did not have my glasses on. We might have moved for nearly forty feet before the wind stopped blowing, forcing us to stop our movement again.
At that time, I caught a glimpse of what might be another group of aliens in the distance on our far left direction. If all of the blurry figures that I saw briefly were all aliens, then it would mean that there were five other aliens on our far left direction. There also did not seem to be that much of large and tall rocks there, if any, and therefore I supposed that we would not be going to that direction either.
"We are going to the other side of the tall rock on our far right direction, are not we?" I asked Billy. "How far is it still from here?"
"Probably about eight or nine meters…" Billy replied with a very low voice.
'Nine meters… that is roughly close to thirty feet…' I thought to myself.
Suddenly, I was brought to a little shock when I felt a faint thud on the ground. I really wanted to look for the source of the thud, but I could not do it without raising my head and risking to be found out by the aliens. Not only that, the wind also blew again shortly after while the thudding just seem to be getting bigger.
"Travis…" Jessica whispered from behind me.
"No. It is too risky…" I replied to her in a very low voice.
Apparently Billy might also be thinking the same, since he did not object nor gave out any single words. I had to admit that it was such a shame we could not move when the wind was in fact, blew stronger than it had during the two of our previous movements. That being said, even if the alien that caused the thud was also standing very near to us, we would most likely not choose to take it down since it would risk us getting noticed by the other aliens.
As the wind finally stopped blowing a couple minutes later, I could barely contain my disappointment to not using the opportunity, even though it would also mean risking ourselves to suddenly get stumbled upon the extraterrestrial creature. Although, I also slowly began to keep that thought to myself since the thud still kept on getting bigger, and also accompanied by a thudding sound instead of starting to faint, indicating that the thing causing it indeed was getting nearer to us.
I could feel a tense atmosphere around me building up as the thudding sound progressively getting louder. If there was any good thing about it, then it would be the direction of where the sound was coming from, which was directly from our left direction. If I was to take a guess, then I would suppose that one of the aliens that I had seen earlier from the far left direction had separated itself from its teammates and perhaps was heading towards the other teammates gathering around the dead body.
Almost immediately after that, a heart-stopping sight was present right before my eyes and through the tall grasses around me. It was none other than the alien itself, literally standing right in front of Billy, no more than a couple of feet from him, just walking slowly through the tall grasses as it appeared to still be looking for us and completely oblivious of our position.
Just looking at it from where I was crouching already sent countless chills down my spine and made my legs to tremble, but I could not even imagine what Billy might be feeling right then since he was the one closest to the very threat before us. I immediately remembered to hold my breath as deep as I could, attempting to not give it any clues of our current position, and fortunately, it only took some several seconds for the alien to move past us, bringing our imminent danger away in the process.
It took me five slow breaths before I could calm myself and made my legs stop trembling. I was very grateful that none of us suddenly panicked and made some sort of a chaotic action just earlier, especially Jessica who surprisingly seemed to be still rather calm despite how close she also was to the threat. And then, several minutes after that another strong wind blew again and Billy slowly gave us a signal to follow him. The wind gave us barely enough time to reach the back of the rock right before it stopped blowing.
"Well, that was too close…" I said to them with a low voice.
"I do not think I will be able to forget that encounter for the rest of my life…" Billy responded before he turned to Jessica and asked how she was doing. "Elu gimana Jes?"
"Untung gue bisa nahan napas…" She replied to him as she had both her hands trembling, saying that she could barely hold her breath earlier. "But well, good thing it did not find out we were right below it."
Billy then raised his head a little bit, before pulling down again and told us that we might only had covered a quarter of our needed distance before the jungle. It might seem like it would take us at least an hour before we could get into the jungle and could walk more freely again, but he also told us that the large and tall rocks were also scattered more abundantly the closer it was to the jungle.
"It makes me wonder on how these large rocks were scattered here in the first place…" Billy muttered.
"They did not look like they were man-made, are not they?" I responded. "So perhaps they were some sort of volcanic residues in the past?"
"This area seemed to be very near to an active volcano in the prehistoric times, so there is a possibility to that." Jessica replied to me.
Nevertheless, the only thing that mattered at that time was that there were numbers of hiding spots that we could use to cover ourselves from the sights of the aliens. We then hurried to another large rock when the wind blew again, still in crouching position, to the direction of our near left. It took us only twice of movements before we reached the rock. Unexpectedly, a lightning was then seen in the sky and followed by a thunder rumble a few seconds after.
"Well, there goes our opportunity to take down an alien…" Jessica said to me.
"Wait a minute." Billy suddenly spoke. "Travis did you count the-"
"About three and a half to four seconds." I answered him, cutting of his words as I looked at my watch. "The time gap between the presence of the lightning and the rumbling sound was roughly four seconds."
"Then that means we have a maximum of about one second to shoot any nearby alien after we see the lightning…" Billy concluded.
Jessica was still kept in the dark, but I gave her the brief explanation of the main point of both Billy and my words. I told her that if we were to take down an alien when lightning occurred, then we would have to have the right timing or a loud thudding sound caused by the falling dead body would be heard by other aliens.
I continued by explaining that during the occurrence of lightning just earlier, I managed to find out the time between its occurrence and the rumbling sound, which was roughly almost four seconds. That would mean by rough estimation, we must shoot or stab the alien no more than one second after the lightning occurred since we had to also assume that the time for its dead body to fall was roughly four seconds.
Of course, it was all just a speculation based on one lightning, and there was absolutely no guarantee that with each lightning occurrences, the time gap between occurrence and rumbling sound would be similar, if not the same. Nevertheless, Jessica completely agreed with my explanation.
Very shortly after that, we felt another thud from our right direction. I immediately readied my submachine gun and put myself on full alert of what might be coming towards us. Unlike before, I could sense a more determined and braver atmosphere, although still with a heavy anxious air as well. It was not until five minutes before the thudding sound began to be heard together with a faint grass rustling sound from the same direction.
As if the nature also wanted the three of us to take down the creature at that time, a strong wind then began to blow, and not even one minute after that, another alien could be seen walking straight right in front of us. It made me even more determined to take it down when a lightning suddenly occurred in the sky. I quickly took aim towards the alien's head, and apparently Billy also did the same as well before I fired out four rounds from my submachine gun. It all happened so quickly that by the time I was done, the alien had fell down to the ground, camouflaged by the thunder rumbling sound.
'Krrgkkk GRAGGHH'
In an instant, excitement, satisfaction, and perhaps pride with a little bit of relieve filled my mind. However it was cut very short when suddenly another thud and its sound was heard again, and seemed to be rushing towards our direction. I only had one thing in my mind at that time – we were mistaken to think that the alien we had just taken down to be alone.
My assumption turned out to be accurate when a few seconds later, another alien came right towards where the dead body was lying on, which was just on Billy's right direction and seemed to be bending its knees and checking its dead teammate for something. It was a little bit relieving to know that it was still oblivious to our presence, but then again we also could not take the creature down right away since there was no other lightning.
'Unless…' I thought to myself, 'if I could somehow shoot it and make it fall either right on top of its dead teammate or right beside it.'
There was actually nothing that would support me in taking the risk, except from the fact that the strong wind was surprisingly still blowing by then, and therefore could still cover the sight of it collapsing to the ground. Aside from that, I would also be the only one who was able to do it since Billy was too near to the alien while Jessica would have to crawl a couple more feet before she could stab it in the head with her pickaxe. In the end, I finally decided, although with full doubt and hesitation to open fire five rounds towards its head.
'thub thub thub thub thub'
It immediately collapsed on top of its dead teammate's body, before slowly slid down to the ground right beside it and lied there, lifelessly. Instead of excitement and satisfaction, my mind was filled with anxiety, wondering if the action I had just taken would blow our cover. Apparently, Billy was also thinking similar thoughts as I could see him breathing rapidly. Well, that or he was just relieved the alien did not find out he was there all along.
But there was another thing that made me also wondered. I was confused to realize that the wind was in fact, still blowing hard by that time. It must have meant that it had been blowing continuously without stopping for at least ten minutes by then. As expected, Billy also then signaled us to move again, and with a quicker pace than before as well.
Right before we reached the next rock, I felt like the downpour falling right upon us to get far worse. If I were to describe how worse it had become, it felt like I was just laying on top of a soft grassy carpet while being continuously drenched by a large-sized cold shower water on its maximum output and then all of a sudden the shower was replaced by a large bucket full of water poured down on me without any stop.
To make matters worse, I also believed that the sky was getting darker right after the downpour worsen making it looked like it was past from 6 p.m., while actually it had not yet even reached 11 a.m. It halved the range of my vision as a result, not to mention that I also still not having my glasses on me. I did not know how Billy and Jessica felt at that time, but I could be completely sure that they just wanted to get out from the grassy meadow by then.
I was not sure if it was just me, or that Billy indeed crawling forward very quickly without any signs of slowing down, let alone stopping. He also seemed to be forgetting about hiding behind the next large rock as he just crawled passed through it and onto the next one. Nevertheless, I did not really worry about his actions since the wind also surprisingly had not stopped blowing yet, although it did begin to blow more gently at that time.
The next rock was passed, and then another and yet another, until we arrived behind a large tree trunk. It took me a few seconds to realize that we had in fact reached the end of the grassy meadow area, and that we had made it by crawling without stopping and had succeeded in avoiding detection from the aliens. Billy crawled for a few more distance before he got up and began to crouch-walk. Both Jessica and I then followed right behind him as we began to enter the jungle.
"I felt like a massive buckets of water being poured down on me all of a sudden…" I said to both Billy and Jessica as I put on my glasses again.
"Tapi, gue ga nyangka. Bisa terobos terus ga ketahuan mereka." Jessica said, confused as to how we were able to evade the aliens without them noticing us even though we rushed.
"Itu… nanti gue jelasin…" Billy responded, saying that he would explain about it later on before he turned towards me. "I believe that you will realize it shortly after this as well…"
Billy and I then switched our position, with me leading the line and proceeded to go further into the jungle. Thanks to the dense trees and other sorts of yet unfamiliar large plants, we were somehow partially covered from the heavy downpour, even though we definitely still had rainwater coming down on us. It was dark, but I could still see the time 11.24 a.m. on my watch as we began to crouch-walk. We had safely escaped from the alerted area, and as we proceeded, I just hoped that we would not encounter any of the aliens for the rest of the day…