I opened up my eyes slowly to see a neat array of constructed bricks. As I slowly moved my head, I realized that I had just seen the ceiling on my lying position with face up. To my little surprise, I also saw Jessica sleeping right beside me, on my left side as I turned around. I tried to recall what had happened at the night before I went to sleep.
I remembered that I had spent a rather long time in calming her down by holding her tightly on my left chest, feeling her fast beating heartbeat as well as mine. Then, as some more time had passed by, she finally said that I could let go and then thanked me for calming her down. I also accompanied her back inside the temple before I then sat down on the floor and positioned my backpack properly before I used it as a pillow.
Shortly after, she then approached me again and asked me if I did not mind her sleeping beside me for the night. I said that I did not, and then she immediately put her backpack right besides mine and quickly laid down on the floor before she almost instantly fell asleep… at least apparently. At first, I still had my heart beating fast but not as fast as when she hugged me all of a sudden earlier before that, however as I waited and tried my best to calm myself down I could eventually regain my full composure and it was also at that same moment before I quickly felt the heaviness on both my eyelids.
Fully had woke up, I checked the time through my watch and realized that the time was 05.45 a.m., just the time when the sun would rise at any second. I then quickly but silently approached the spot where Billy was sleeping, and tried to wake him up.
"Bill… it is now sunrise…" I said to him as I gently patted his shoulder. "We have to move again…"
"Oh… yeah right…" he responded with a low voice as he opened up his eyes slowly, seemingly still with a little sleepy looks on his face.
Just then, a similar but rather significantly louder bushes-like noise was heard somewhere in the distance, precisely on the southeastern direction of the temple. Apparently, Billy might most likely have also heard it since he immediately grabbed his submachine gun and crawled down before slowly moved to the eastern wall. I proceeded to do the same, but I headed to Jessica's direction first since she was still fast asleep.
"Jess…" I said to her as I gently patted her arm. "Wake up, I think we have a company nearby."
"Huh? O-okay…" she quickly responded as she then fully awoken and quickly grabbed her shotgun.
I then slowly stood up and took cover behind the wall right in front of me, signaling Jessica to keep her head down and watch for the temple entrance gap, before I then turned to Billy who was crouching behind a window. When our eyes met, I lifted my eyebrows to him, giving him a signal that I asked him if he could saw anything in the direction of the noise earlier. He responded quickly by shaking his head three times, which was unfortunately a signal that he did not see anything at all.
Almost instantly after that, a couple of loud thudding sounds were heard right from above us, and were also immediately followed by a couple of brief but heavy vibrations as well. I knew right away at that moment that at least a couple of aliens had either jumped or flown and landed right on top of the temple. Since none of us had been attacked, even though each of us were technically hiding near an opened spot, I believed that it was safe to assume that the aliens had not realized that we were inside the temple, at least for the moment.
But with that in mind, I also realized that we were absolutely in a seriously tight spot. First of all, it would be impossible for us to just charge out from one of the windows and expected that the aliens on the top of the temple to not notice us. Then, there would be also another thing to consider before making the decision on how we should get away from them, which was none other than on how we should cover the bushes noise when we rushed into the swamp again once we could somehow divert their attention away.
The only clue that I had at the moment, was only the very faint flying sounds of the aliens, and since I could still hear it even though only for a little, it still confirmed that they were still above us, most likely hovering and scouting the area. I began to think if we should just wait for them to finish their scouting activity before making the move out of the temple, but then again we would be just waiting for our demise if they somehow ended up deciding to go and check inside the temple once they had done doing so.
Just then, Billy turned his head left, right, up, down and to all of the direction all of a sudden like he was looking for something that he had accidentally missed. I believed that it was more or less only fifteen seconds after that before he slowly began to crawl again and approached the wall across our side. At first, I absolutely had no idea of what he might have in his mind by going over there. But just as he arrived and immediately picked up a couple of what seemed to be pieces of a broken cube brick, it quickly hit me that he might want to use them as some sort of a short and emergency diversion.
I immediately signaled Jessica to follow me by crawling to the wall across our side, and as we had approached Billy again I asked right away about what I had guess just then, which turned out to be true except that he could not be sure on which direction that he should throw it to and through which window for each of the pieces. I could not be sure about what to suggest to him at first, but since I had heard that the direction of both of the flying sounds seemed to be coming from a little to the west, I told him that he might want to throw it towards the same direction while giving my reason as well.
"Are you sure?" Billy asked in a low voice with his face full of anxiety.
"I just hope that my ears did not betray me just now…" I said and sighed.
"I am going to take that as a 'yes' then…' he ended as he crawled quickly towards the west wall.
It did not take him long before he reached the wall and took cover right under the window that he had chosen to throw the pieces of brick from. He then also gestured with his left hand, giving both Jessica and I a signal that he would first count to three before he would throw the pieces of the brick. Since the two of us were already near a window, I gave him a responding signal to tell him that we were ready.
I then counted silently to three as Billy also gestured his hand, and right at the moment he threw the pieces of the brick out, I quickly urged Jessica to rush outside through the window before I followed her shortly after. As the two of us had went outside the temple again, we continued rushing towards the nearest tall trees, which were towards the northeast direction of the temple and hid there for a little while before we waited for Billy.
I became anxious with each passing minutes as we still waited for Billy's arrival to our hiding spot. I began to think if he had become trapped inside the temple all by himself since the aliens might decide to surround the temple, resulting in no more opened spot for him to get away from the ancient structure.
I also began to feel impatient as the sun above us slowly but progressively kept on rising, since it would mean that it would be easier for the aliens to spot us once there was enough sun ray. Suddenly, something patted me from my right direction, extremely shocking me to the point that I moved a couple of steps back and aimed my submachine gun towards it.
"Whoa, hey- it is me…" a familiar face with a couple of small cut on his right forehead said as he lifted his hand a little.
"Jesus Christ!" I said with a low voice and sighed immediately after that.
"Jidat elu kenapa Bill?" Jessica said, asking him about the cuts in his forehead.
"Semak belukar tajam…" he replied, telling her that he accidentally scratched it against some bushes with sharp leaves.
He told the two of us that he had to wait a little longer since the alien did not seem to be completely distracted by the pieces of the brick that he threw right away. However, he found one more piece of brick lying just next to his foot, and therefore he picked it up and threw it outside through a window again, not from the same wall but instead through the southern wall near the spot where both Jessica and I had slept at the night before.
The second time he threw that one piece of brick, the aliens fully responded to the noise that had been created and he knew right away that they flew and jumped down to that same direction since he felt the vibrations very clearly. It was at that moment when he rushed towards one of the window on the northern wall and proceeded to go deeper into the swamp, in which he also accidentally scratched his forehead because of some sharp bushes very shortly after that.
"Tapi, udah… segini bukan apa-apa kok…" he ended, ensuring her that the scratch was absolutely nothing to be felt.
Since he said that it was nothing to be concerned of, and to which I also saw it that way, we then quickly decided to go straight to the east direction, which was the same direction where the mountain of our destination would be. By then, the time was already 06.10 a.m., and the sun had completely risen, officially beginning the daylight…