Even though I could somehow feel a little more refreshed inside the mask, the same thing did not happen for the rest of my body. It felt like my whole body safe my face had just entered some sort of a sauna but with a continuously increasing temperature that made me feel like I would begin to get exhausted again in no time due to the heat. Nevertheless, we still had something very important to do and I also believed that both Billy and Jessica also felt the same.
It did not take long before we began to walk on a pebbled ground, which was exactly the same one from back when we were just about to step inside the outer ring of the crater. It was at that moment, when I realized right away that we had gone back to where we had supposed to go to, but just from the opposite side. Of course, my visibility range at that same moment had been reduced again due to the intensifying volcanic ashes.
"Bill… do you see anything unusual?" I asked him in a lower tone as I tapped my mask headband.
"So far, the only thing I see and know for sure is that we are back on the crater area again…" he responded me quickly.
"Then everything is still fine for now…" I concluded, short.
"Why? Do you have something on your mind?" he asked.
"I just thought that we should have at least seen one or two of them by now. But just as we can see at the moment, we still have not encountered even a single of them…" I sighed.
"You know…" Jessica suddenly responded, "I wonder if the aliens actually have their vision very susceptible to particles like volcanic ashes that made them practically blind since they crashed with each other back in the sugarcane field…"
"Oh, so you saw that too, Jess…" I quickly replied to her, realizing that she had indeed witnessed the strange scene.
"Would not that mean that we are now able to just rush towards the rift, and then to the mountain?" she continued.
She had a point though, if we were to assume that the aliens were completely blind we could just create some sort of another distraction somewhere and while they were rushing towards that place, we could easily rush towards our destination with far less threats. However, another concern to consider was if the one who noticed the distraction were not just the aliens, but also the hovering objects, which we had concluded so far that the aliens inside it would be able to see through the volcanic ashes completely. Apparently, Billy was also thinking the same thing.
"Tetap bahaya Jess… Kita enggak bisa tahu kalo seketika kita tiba-tiba ketemu sama hovering object yang dibilang Travis…" Billy responded to her, saying that we still could not guarantee if we would not suddenly get face to face with the hovering object if we decided to rush towards the mountain peak.
"Hmmmh…" she felt silent.
Not too long after the three of us went to deep silence, Billy slowed his pace down before completely stopping, and told us that a clearing was just right in front of him, indicating that we were at the edge of the plateau. Since we had been heading towards the east direction from the start, we should headed towards the northeast direction for five hundred meters.
We then began to head towards a different direction, and I believe it was not until five minutes before I felt like we were walking on a small inclined surface, which would mean that the vertical distance between us and the mountain peak had been reduced again. As I had expected right away, I began to feel like the heat caused by the volcanic ashes had risen up yet again.
That being said, apparently the more intense volcano ashes near the newly formed rift had also impacted another factor, which was none other than the pileup of them on the inclined surface. As a result, it made the ground which we had to step on slippery and forced us to slow down our pace. Jessica also even almost had herself fell down, but luckily I managed to catch her left arm before she hit the ground.
"Th-thanks…" she said through her mask, with only a faintly heard voice since she did not use her mask's radio.
We might have spent almost ten minutes just to traverse the then more slippery surface, before Billy suddenly stopped and signaled us to go to our left direction and hold on against the rocky walls before continuing on further. I quickly comprehend that we had then covered the needed distance before we reached the rift, and thus I let Jessica to first follow him before I would go from right behind her.
Thankfully, the volcanic ashes pileup on the rocky wall were far less than they were on the pebble ground, and so it made all three of us had an easier time in traversing the narrow step besides the rift in order to continue to our destination. However, I suddenly heard a very faint noise similar to a falling rock boulder from right above us. At first, I thought that it was only my imagination but since the noise was getting louder, I had no choice but to urge Billy to stop moving.
"Bill!" I shouted, since I could not tap my mask headband while I had both my hands holding on against the rocky wall. "Do not go any further first! I heard something strange from right above us-"
'GAACKK BRAGGHKKK!!!'
"AAAAaaa-!!" Billy screamed, and clearly heard even though he was not using his mask radio.
Although it was for a very brief moment, it was a completely clear sight of an alien falling and rolling down the wall in a very fast speed. Either it might have been poisoned by excessive volcanic ashes that it finally lost its consciousness and fell down, or that it accidentally fell from above because it could not see its surroundings, it nearly took Billy down with it as it had met its demise. I could not even hear the thudding sound created from below the rift, which strongly indicated that it must have fell down very far below.
'Thank God I managed to warn Billy just before it reached him…' I thought to myself as I sighed in a hugged relief.
Not long after that, we finally managed to get past the rift and onto a much wider ground again. Also, our surroundings seemed quite different from before. I saw a few cone-shaped protrusions from the ground, and if I were to take a guess I would say that they were all outlets for the geyser created by the magma activities below the volcano.
"Thanks, Travis…" Billy said as he patted my shoulder and tapped his mask headband. "If it was not for you I would have become a dead body somewhere far below by now…"
"Thank God I could repay you for what you have done to me back in sugarcane…" I responded to him and tapped my mask headband as well.
We then proceeded to the southwest direction right away, and walked for a few minutes before we could finally see a less inclined opening to go up to the mountain peak. It was also then when I decided to notify both Commodore Quentin and Commander General Girsang that we had arrived at our last checkpoint before going to our destination through my mask radio.
"Black Caiman here, both me and Golden Jackal had arrived right in front of a less inclined opening that supposedly will lead us to the peak." I said as I tapped my mask headband.
"Excellent Caiman, anything unusual happened when you were on your way there?" Commodore Quentin responded and asked quickly.
"Well, Golden Jackal nearly got hit by a falling alien back when were on the rift. But aside from that, we were completely fine." I answered to him.
"Falling… alien?" he asked again, apparently did not really understand what I meant.
"Yes. It seems that for some reason, an alien fell down from somewhere on top of the volcano." I told him. "I suppose it might be caused by the volcanic ashes poisoning, or that it just fell down because it could not see its surrounding."
"I see…" he responded again, short.
"Nevertheless, we are okay. Permission to proceed to our destination, sir?" I replied.
"Granted. Stay on full alert, son." he ended.
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes for a moment before I opened them up again and released it. Shortly after, I signaled both Billy and Jessica that we had to move again and up to the mountain. As we took our first steps on the opened path before us, I began to wonder what could be lying on top of the mountain, waiting to be discovered very soon…