"There you are."
"Yes. I am here."
Oh, shit! That was close!
I had to literally roll aside to another container box with same size the moment I heard another alien was calling out to the one I had been following. One of them apparently continued to converse with the other who was pushing the trolley.
My ears just had some chance overhearing what they were talking about.
"Are those the last ones?"
"Yes."
"But I thought that they are still many of these boxes down there?"
"They are all empty."
I see. Lucky for me to pick up the last one to be taken here, I guess….
"What were the contents inside these boxes again?"
"Additional food and shield supplies. I have lost count on how many of you asking me the same thing today."
"What do you mean?"
"Why did not any of you share what you heard from me about the things inside these boxes, and share it to the others instead of asking me over again?"
"Because I heard that the chief decided to harvest some of the aquatic animals around here as the additional food, and only a few boxes contain it."
Aquatic… animals? Does it mean fish? Arctic Cod?
So, these aliens eat fishes too?
"I have not heard about that before, but these boxes are from the first floor. They did not come together with our gunship just now."
"Then, how many boxes were lifted off from the gunship?"
"I heard there were five, but one of those boxes have been stored in this floor by someone else before me."
"And the rest of the other four?"
"They were still on the hangar on the fourth floor where the gunship landed our tank."
I knew it! There were more than just three floors!
"Do you want to see where the rest of the boxes are?"
"No, I just come down here to take my meal. I just finished my turn in guarding that large chamber on the third floor.
A large chamber that needs guarding? I wonder what kind of special chamber it is….
"Oh, you mean our stealth fighter aircraft maintenance chamber."
Their what?!
"If you do not mind, can you tell one or two of us from the hangar to come down to the chamber? I do not want the chief to find the chamber lacking in personnel."
"Sure."
Their footsteps quickly faded away and their voices were no longer heard; a sign for me to be able to come out from my hiding.
Unlike the first floor, the second floor did not have bridges above them with guards looking all over the place from there. That being said, it was also challenging for me to find out which way to go to the third floor from my current position since there were many container boxes blocking my sight.
Well, at least this way it will be easier to sneak past through them….
Starting by heading slowly to my left side, I also took care of trying to listen if there were any footsteps; an indication of whether or not one of them was nearby. After approaching and passing few of the boxes, I came to know the pattern on how they were stored on the second floor, and how it could benefit me in guessing which spots the aliens could be at on that floor.
Each space between boxes was approximately twice their sizes, which would mean that they were exactly five meters apart. In terms of area, the whole floor would have exactly the same volume as the ones above and under it. I could still not hear any other footsteps approaching near me, implying that each of the alien guards might have been told to keep quite some distances away from each other in guarding the floor.
Considering those three things, it would be only natural to think that the numbers of the aliens on the second floor was far less than on the first floor; perhaps no more than five. I was finally confident to assure myself that the second floor could in fact, be the least guarded floor.
And with that, I could move again to another spot while still looking for the access to the third floor.
However, after I passed five boxes I sniffed something unusual; a roasted seafood aroma from around me.
Wait, where does this smell come from?
At that moment, I was standing right at the center between four container boxes. The smell must be coming from one of the boxes near me, but might also not necessarily be from inside one of those four.
Then, it must be coming from one of the sixteen boxes nearest to me right now.
Approaching the first two boxes in front of me, I realized right away that the smell was not coming from them. I continued to go to another two on my left side, but still to no luck.
That was, until I heard a slight chewing sound somewhere from my right side.
Lowering both my legs a little, I crouched very slowly to one of the boxes edges and peeked from there.
Right there and then, witnessing for the first time in my life that an extraterrestrial creature was feasting on an earthly-made food.
Holding the unmistakably-Arctic Cod with both of its hands while sitting on the floor, the feasting alien looked like it had never eaten something so tasty before in its whole life. Chewing over and over the torn fleshes of the fish until the very bones themselves had been devoured, it continued along with the second fish, and then to the third one after that.
It is… eating roasted fishes?
Quite strangely too though, that snapping turtle alien behemoth seemed to be very proficient in fishing for a living creature visiting Earth the first time.
I guess that beam halberd can also serve as a fishing tool then, and the beam more or less roasted the fish on the spot, making it ready to eat once caught.
I had read the official report detailed by both Travis and Billy Mubarak two years ago that they had seen with their own eyes how the aliens back then feasted upon wild sugarcane stalks. They described how terrifying the expression of those creatures while feasting the plants were; like 'hyenas who had not eaten for days or even weeks scraping even the thinnest layer of meat on a bone'.
Also, I came to realize that each of the container boxes had an excellent preserving function since the roasted fishes would already be too far spoiled if it had not because that behemoth must have fished them out perhaps even before any of us arrived to the archipelago.
Okay, that is enough of that about them feasting. Time to go to the third floor.
Taking a few steps back while still crouching and away from the still feasting alien, I proceeded until the fourth box have been passed before walking again with both my feet straight. It was also then when I found the access to the third floor, which turned out to be on the far left corner of the second floor.
This voyager seems to contain far more things than what I have seen and heard so far, even combined with the reports from two years ago….
Oh, I cannot wait to see this stealth fighter aircraft of theirs….