"Miss Cassie!"
"Haha… what is up with your face, Jon?"
"Your head it is-"
"I am okay, Jon… accidents happen. Hahaha."
"Why did you… Um… How did it happen?"
"Well, I guess I tripped myself over from the emergency stairs."
"Was it dark then?"
"Hmm, no. Maybe I did not watch my steps because there were a bunch of your classmates sitting around there."
"Who were they?"
"Jon… come on…"
"No, I am serious. Who were they?"
"Sigh… look. Do not think anything bad, okay? It was those guys who sometimes mess up with you."
"Huh? Do not they have their own place to hang out after school? What are they doing there?"
"Beats me… but look here, Jon. The important thing is, I am okay right now. So do not do anything reckless, okay?"
"Fine, I promise…"
.
Pushing down the fifth round inside my rifle magazine, it was then at full capacity again before I attached it back to the rifle. Yeon gave Alek a favour of filling a round inside his rifle's magazine, since he was the one driving the truck and also the only one besides me who managed to fire a round from his rifle, and also hit the target.
"Hey, Alek. I finished loading a round into the magazine. I am going to put it on the bench beside Jon." Yeon opened up the cabin rear window.
"Great. Much appreciated, Colonel." Alek nodded as he kept his eyes on the road and driving.
Before I forgot, I began to explain as briefly as I could about how the lasers inside the aliens' war machines might work. From the solar energy harvesting through their exterior armor, the built-in ammunition chamber between the exterior and interior armors, to how they practically do not need to bring any spare ammunition inside the machines since the solar energy was converted to laser instantly after it was harvested, and then inserted to the turrets and/or cannons as a laser projectile, before it was then fired upon a target.
"How can you be so sure?" Yeon looked convinced, but apparently needed one or two more additional explanations.
"Five years ago, when the fog was still enveloping the whole town, we basically could not see where their aircrafts were flying at. With that said, the fog was created by those aircrafts too, so it is only natural for us to think that they were flying at a higher altitude, right?" I recalled what I had been thinking since five years ago.
"Huh. Go on." Yeon nodded, his eyes was completely focused on me.
"So that means, right above the top surface of the aircraft, they had a full exposure towards the sunlight, and if the exterior armors also acted as a solar panel, they were practically stacking up their ammunition for both their beam rifles and their laser auto cannons every time the daylight comes." I continued.
"No wonder back at that time they did not seem like they were going to run out of ammunition, even if just barely"
"So, just now… if we shoot at that amphibious tank on the exterior armor…" Derek came into the conversation.
"It would do nothing at all to the machine. They must have specifically engineered the armors that even their own lasers might not be able to put a dent, let alone penetrate it." I shook my head.
"And that is why you had to shoot at their most vulnerable spot, and that was the turret hole where the laser projectile was already loaded." Yeon raised his left eyebrow.
"I was not so sure at first, but since it worked, that means at least this whole assumption is safe, at least for now." I opened up my hands.
"No wonder that earlier you said that it was based on your instinct…" Yeon looked down a little and grazed his hair backwards.
There was nothing else to be said once I had explained them about what I figured out, so I began checking the condition of the machine gun mounted at the back of the truck to see if it was somehow damaged because of the bump or the hard fall. But I kind of did not expect that there were barely any dents on the weapon. I guess it was not the first thing that touched the ground when the truck fell.
Aside from checking it, there was nothing else that could be done except for staring at the vast arctic ground as the truck kept on going forward, again. The dark orange aurora on the sky above us, illuminating everything there was to see below it. For some reason, it seemed like the aurora had increased in size.
"What is wrong?" Yeon looked at me.
"Why does it look like the aurora become larger now?" I still had my eyes on the aurora.
"Wait… since when does it get like that?" Derek leaned closer towards the machine gun barrel to look outside.
I did not know why but, I hoped that it was not a sign that something bad was about to happen….
Yet what happened next was the exact opposite of what I had been hoping….
At first I thought that it was only my imagination, but after taking a closer look, there really was something else far in the distance towards the truck's left side.
"And now there are white dusts approaching here from the left side." I said as I turned my head to the right.
Yeon opened up the window cover, and while he could not see it for a moment, he quickly confirmed what I saw to be true.
"Blizzard?" Yeon was also confused.
"No, I do not think so. If it was, I guess we can already feel the strong wind right now from here." I turned my head a little towards him.
Even though I could not be sure of the distance between the truck and the dust, which was fast approaching us, I was quite sure that it was not that far that we would still not be able to feel the wind if it was a blizzard.
But then, I noticed something else….
It was not too clear to be sure, but it was as if that there were also white furs among the approaching dust.
Wait a minute… furs….
Is it a stampede?!
But if it is, then the only wild land animals that could cause it with white furs that could be found in the arctic zone are none other than polar bears.
Why are they coming towards this way?
No, rather… why are they coming towards this truck?!
"Major, I think there is another approaching dust on our right side!" Takeshi called me.
What?!
I quickly turned my head to the opposite direction, and he was right. The approaching dust was exactly the same like on the other side.
Which also means that it is another stampede of polar bears!
"No, they are not dusts. They are polar bears coming directly towards this truck as a stampede!" I quickly reached for my handgun.
The atmosphere inside the truck turned tense and oppressing in an instant. Everybody's heart were probably pounding hard again like when we were followed and pursued by the amphibious tank.
"Wait! Do not use your rifles against these bears, they were endangered species after all" I grabbed Yeon's hand who was reaching for his rifle.
"What?! Now is not the time to be concerned about-"
"As long as we can keep them away, they will not be able to damage this truck, do they?" I leaned in a little closer to him.
"And how do you intend to do that?" he was still persistent.
"By using this machine gun and shoot at the ground behind this truck, so it could crack open and reveal the sea beneath it!" I was starting to get pissed a little.
"Hey, Takeshi! Is this truck-"
"Yes, Colonel! Major Xenov is right! We are currently above the frozen sea again from a few moments ago based on this map!" Takeshi nodded restlessly.
"Fine… Derek!" Yeon looked seriously dissatisfied, but nonetheless convinced to do the right thing.
"Yes, sir!" Derek quickly got behind the mounted machine gun, ready to fire.
"But if those bears still managed to even touch this truck, I will shoot at them with my rifle." He readied his handgun as his left hand pointed towards me.
I only looked away and scoffed a little as I began to aim through the left windows.
"I will take that as a yes." He ended.
Yeon probably did not want to take any chance of losing his only remaining men in the truck, Derek, should the stampeding bears reached us. I could not say that I could not understand him, but I just thought that if we could somehow stay out of compromising something, we might as well try.
But now is not the time to think about it.
The bears were fast approaching us, and their numbers were not just dozens or tens. They were hundreds of them, maybe even reaching five hundreds in total, and that was just on the left side. Since the numbers on the other side seemed to be the same, that means we were up against about a thousand polar bears!
"Alek, we are counting on you!" I knocked on the cabin rear window.
"Da, Mayor! Here we go again!" Alek chuckled, although he also sounded nervous.
"Derek, on my mark!" I turned my head a little to him.
"Yes, sir! Standing by!" Derek tightened his grip on the machine gun.
By then, it was just about a few more moments before the bears are close enough to really become a potential threat towards us. And so, I began the countdown in my head before telling him to fire at the frozen behind the truck.
Five….
Four….
Three….
Two….
One!
"Now!" I fired my handgun to one of the closest polar bear's leg, tripping it and some of the others behind it.
In an instant, the whole truck was completely filled with the sounds of guns blazing and countless muzzle flashes, with us doing whatever we could to make sure the stampede does not reach the truck with minimal counterattack as possible. Perhaps it only took a few seconds before many of the polar bears began to fall down the cracked open holes, splashing themselves into the sea as the others followed them.
But that was not the end of it….
It turned out that the dust from both of the left and right side horizons were still there and fast approaching us which clearly telling us that there were far more than a thousand bears surrounding us.
"I am about to run out of ammunition here!" Derek shouted as he kept on shooting.
"Here, let me!" I rushed to one of the ammunition box, containing the bullets for the machine gun.
During that moment, Yeon frequently changed windows to make sure that none of the bears touched the truck. But I had to admit that he was doing a really good job in holding out both sides while I had to assist Derek in reloading the mounted gun.
"I am out!" Derek quickly opened up the feed cover.
Taking out the ammunition from its box, I inserted the metal pull tab on the machine gun's ammunition belt and the first round was held in place by the machine gun's feeding pawl. Derek quickly closed the feed cover again as I pulled back the cocking handle once before rushing back towards the left side windows. I clearly heard that Derek pulled the handle back again for the second time before he then proceeded to shoot at the frozen sea for the second time.
"About time you got back to where you should be!" Yeon sounded exhausted while firing a couple of rounds towards the approaching bears on his side.
"Thanks! I appreciate what you did just now!" I fired a round upon another bear.
Even though it was clearly an endless wave, we somehow still managed to keep the bears away from the truck either by splashing them to the opened sea, or to trip some of them by shooting another in front of them in one of the legs.
However no matter how many of them we took down, there seemed to be no signs that they were about to end.
"Takeshi! How much longer will we still going to be on this sea?!" I knocked on the rear cabin before changing my handgun magazine.
"We are less than a quarter way to the second island! Hang on!" Takeshi pointed his finger forward.
If there was anything better than before, it was probably that the frozen sea right behind the truck began to crack on its own and quickly widened sideways towards various points, opening the water below it and forcing a larger number of the bears to splash down to the sea.
"How is your ammunition?!" I asked Derek while also aiming at two of the nearest bears.
"All good!" Derek kept on firing.
"Urgh, we cannot keep this up forever!" Yeon took cover below the window before he began to reload again.
"We are almost there! We have to hold out!" I fired upon one of the bears' leg.
"Mayor! Colonel! I can already see the second island now!" Alek shouted from inside the cabin.
"Heh. Good grie-"
"YEON!!" I got my whole body was shocked upon what just happened.
One of the bears from his side leapt, and had its right forelegs grabbing his chest!
"Hey, what the hell happened back there?!" Alek shouted.
"Why is the truck suddenly heavy on the right side?!" Takeshi peeked through the rear cabin window.
"JON! TOSS ME MY RIFLE!!" Yeon was desperately reaching his rifle which was just a couple of palms away from him.
"NO TIME FOR THAT! I CAN TAKE IT DOWN FROM HERE!!" I aimed carefully with my right hand steady.
"JUST! HAND ME! THAT RIFLE!" he was struggling to keep his body not dragged outside.
But it is hard for me to shoot without the bullets penetrating through the bear's foreleg and damaging his body armor. If only he moved a bit further away from some part of its foreleg!
"JON!! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?" Yeon finally dropped his handgun as he was forced to hold the foreleg with both of his hands so he could lean a bit further away from the window, creating a little more space between him and the bear's limb.
Wait that is it! I finally found an opening to pull the trigger!
"GET YOUR HEAD TO YOUR LEFT!!"
.
I fired not once, but three times to the foreleg, before the bear growled loudly in absolute pain and fell outside, leaving three small holes and some blood on the truck side. I did not hear anything besides many thudding noises afterwards, so I could be sure that the bear did not get ran over by the truck.
Suddenly, the truck tilted upwards.
"We made it! We have arrived on the second island!" Alek shouted again from inside the cabin.
My heart was still pounding after those last three shots that I did not even lower my aim for a little while. It was not until after Yeon raised his eyebrow and lifted both of his hands a little, that I finally turned back to the window to see the condition outside.
Finally… the stampede had stopped….
The wave apparently ended when the frozen layer of the sea behind the truck had mostly cracked open and most of the remaining bears splashed down and swam back towards the remaining uncracked frozen layers. Derek then sat down at the middle, and quickly dropped his body down, gasping for air desperately.
"Damn it… my arms and legs are sore…" Derek closed his eyes hard and was clenching his teeth.
"Mayor. Should we stop for a while, here?" Alek peeked through the rear window.
There were no more threats that were currently approaching us, and most of us were literally hanging on our last set of breaths. Any more than that, and someone could just pass out.
Takeshi had his whole face completely wet with his sweat even though the weather was undeniably cold, Derek was still lying and trying to catch as much air as he could as he stretched his arms and legs, and Yeon was sitting and bowing down with his face completely hidden from my sight, with his both his arms resting against his knees. I picked up his handgun and gave it to him, but since he did not take it from me I just put it on the bench on his side.
"I guess no one is in a good condition to continue on for now…" I nodded to Alek.
And it seemed that I had to watch our surroundings again while waiting for them to recover from their exhaustion….