Rise of the Resistance (War for Orion Trilogy Book Two) (28 page)

“Not quite that easy. They can sense when
prey is around. I don't know how you managed to have only one come
after you earlier, but I can see at least four holes on the way to
your pod.”

“We'll be quiet. Hopefully they're all out
hunting or something right now.”

“We can only hope,” Fausto squeezed out of
the hole. “If not, we're dead.”

Anlon followed his lead and squeezed his
body through the hole. He was back on the black rock again. The
rush to get to the pod had quickly vanished as he realized one
misstep could mean his death. He willed himself to follow Fausto
forward.

They lightly walked across the black rocky
land, careful to watch their surroundings. Fausto mentioned other
creatures on the land, and neither one of them wanted to be caught
off guard by one of them because they were so focused on the big
predators. The pod was far, and Fausto had been wrong about there
being four holes, Anlon could now see six in the distance. As the
first one neared, they veered right, to completely go around it.
They passed it without any incident and trekked forward.

He turned to Fausto and smiled. “One down.
Five more to go.”

Fausto shot him a look and motioned him to
be quiet and keep moving forward. He lifted his sonic rifle and
continued. The pod was still far off and the second hole was
quickly approaching. In the corner of his eye, he saw Fausto's body
tense up and his rifle raise. There was definitely a creature in
this next hole, but it seemed to be feeding on something, paying
them no attention. Fausto tapped his shoulder and motioned him to
go left, carefully. His heart pounded, and he feared the creature
would hear it, but they passed without a glance from the beast.

Anlon looked to his right, seeing a path
that would take them around several holes. He veered from Fausto's
lead and was stopped by a hand pulling his shoulder.

“I've never been out there,” he said. “I
have no idea what we could run in to. Those things usually steer
clear, so it’s probably best we do the same.”

“It's okay. We’ll be fine,” Anlon assured.
“We're just doing it to get around those three holes,” he pointed.
“As soon as we pass them, we’ll get back on track.”

Fausto nodded with reluctance and they
started for the open rock field. The black rock seemed softened
beneath his feet, but he shook the thought off, knowing it was his
imagination. They sped up some, being a little less careful as they
passed the three holes. The pod was now very close, but it wouldn't
be as easy to get to as they had thought. His pod was within fifty
feet of a hole and he knew why the creature had been on him so
quickly. The thing was nowhere in sight, but he had a feeling it
was lurking around the dark land waiting for his return. Anlon
silently crept past the hole and sped up to get to the pod. He
turned around and saw that Fausto closely behind, rifle pointed
directly at the hole.

“Hurry up and get what we need from that
pod,” he said. “I don't feel safe out here. I feel like we're being
preyed on by more than just those creatures. It’s too quiet out
here.”

Anlon nodded and crawled into the pod. It
felt smaller than he’d remembered as he wiggled his way to the
communications system in the front. Sure enough, there was a
comline, though it looked a little different than what he was used
to. He was sure the circuit boards would be the same though and he
started tearing the comline apart. Once he had it apart, he started
taking boards off, having no idea what to look for and just shoved
everything in his pockets to be safe.

As he finished taking the boards out, he
heard rustling from outside. Anlon reached for his weapon and poked
his head out from the pod. Fausto was crouched down with his weapon
raised.

“Nice of you to come out and join me,” he
whispered.

Anlon raised his weapon. “Sorry, but I
didn't know what I needed, so I just grabbed everything.”

“That's nice,” he replied. “I’d rather never
come out here again if I don't have to.”

“What do you want to do?” Anlon asked,
following the creature who’d emerged from the hole with his
weapon.

“I don't know,” he shrugged. “Shoot it.”

“Right now?”

He nodded. “It's two against one. We're
bound to bring it down if we act quickly.”

“What about the other things?” Anlon asked.
“Won't we cause them to come out?”

“Did they come out last time?”

“Guess not. Shoot on three?”

“Three,” Fausto fired his weapon.

He struck the creature in one of its heads
and it darted towards the two of them in a wild frenzy. Anlon
rolled out of the way, barely escaping a direct strike from the
creature. The sonic round had done some serious damage to its head
and he raised his weapon to inflict more damage. This time the
round caused the head of the creature blow up and it writhed on the
ground in pain. It went into a rage and came straight towards
Anlon.

He looked to see where he could go, and dove
behind the pod for cover. The creature struck the pod, causing it
to topple on its side. Anlon scrambled on the hard ground to escape
another strike when he was sprayed by blood. Something fell on top
of him and he began wriggling in fear to escape the creature. His
heart pounded as he scrambled to his feet and began firing at the
creature. Fausto lowered his weapon and started laughing.

“I think it’s dead. Actually, it’s been dead
since it landed on you.”

Anlon lowered his weapon and tried to slow
his breathing. He was sure the thing was alive when it’d fell on
him. “What’s so funny? We still have a few more to deal with right
behind you.”

Five more were slowly making their way
towards them. Anlon knew they were helpless against this many. It
took the two of them to bring down one. He looked around for
someplace to go and pointed to the rock field they’d traveled on
briefly. Fausto gave a quick nod and they darted for the soft
land.

As soon as they set foot on the rock, the
creatures backed off, but kept their eyes fixed on them. Anlon kept
walking sideways and the beasts continued to back up, as if
avoiding something. He grinned to himself and started walking back
the way they’d come. A slight vibration pulsed through the ground
and he stopped to look as his feet. In the corner of his eye he saw
Fausto doing the same and was about to ask a question when the
vibration came again, this time harder.

He looked up and saw something even worse
than the golden three-headed monsters. There was a black creature
slowly creeping towards them with four red eyes looking directly at
him. Its scaly body looked as rock hard as the ground and its four
legs were causing the vibrations with each step it took

“Any suggestions?” Anlon asked.

“Yeah. Run!”

They turned and ran from the creature as
quick as they could. The four legged creature quickly gained on
them with ease and Anlon could feel the saliva hitting his neck.
There was no way to escape the beast. There was no place to hide
where they'd be safe, not on this bare land. He frantically looked
around until a terrible idea sprang in his head.

“The holes!” Anlon yelled to Fausto. “Jump
in the holes! It can't fit in the holes!”

He saw Fausto jump in without thinking and
hoped there were none of the golden creatures waiting for him
inside. He jumped in next and fell for several seconds, before
hardly hitting the ground with a thump. The beast's snout was
snapping ferociously through the hole, but it was far from reaching
either one of them. The hole was too small and too deep, but he
knew they weren't out of trouble quite yet.

“Fausto?” He called. “Where are you?”

“Down here!” He shouted. “This is a series
of tunnels!”

He felt his way down the dark tunnel until
he ran into Fausto. He wasn't sure how the tunnels were made, but
it definitely hadn't been by the golden creatures. The rock here
was just as hard as above and the only thing that could've created
this was a race with some type of tool.

“I think all the holes may be
interconnected,” Fausto said. “We can probably just travel through
them back to my cave.”

“Is it safe?” Anlon asked. “There could be
those creatures waiting for prey in here.”

“Our other option is to go back up there,”
he pointed. “Even the golden creatures didn't want to face that
thing.”

“Which way do we go? I can see the tunnel
breaks off into several directions right up there,” Anlon
pointed.

“I think we take the one on the left. That’s
in the general direction we came.”

“Let's go then,” Anlon walked towards the
leftmost hole.

They walked down the tunnel, keeping an eye
out for any of the golden creatures. Luckily, it didn't look like
they even lived this deep. The further they traveled, the smaller
the tunnels got, until it was the perfect height for the two of
them. Anlon rubbed his hands on the walls to help guide him in the
darkness. The little light there was, was quickly fading away the
further they traveled.

Strangely enough, he felt safe, though he
knew he shouldn't, not on this planet. Soon, they’d be enveloped in
complete darkness, which was probably even more dangerous than
walking up on the land, but all fear had left his mind. After
seeing what was on top of the land, he was sure nothing down here
could come close to being as dangerous.

“Follow the tunnel,” Fausto whispered. “And
hope that there’s nothing else down here.”

Anlon kept trudging forward, guiding himself
with his hand. The texture of the wall suddenly changed to a soft
gooey texture. Before he could tell Fausto, he ran face first into
his back.

“Something isn't right. Did you feel the
wall?”

“Yes, but our only option is to go forward.
If we turn around now, who knows what will be waiting for us,”
Fausto said.

Anlon shook his head and remembered the
gadget he had on his wrist. He fumbled with it and got it to emit
some light. It wasn't much, but it was enough for them to see a few
feet ahead. An oozing white liquid ran down the walls for as far as
he could see.

“Do you know what it is?” Anlon asked,
rubbing his hand through it.

“Never seen anything like it.”

“I don't think we're alone down here,” Anlon
said. “Something had to have made this stuff. Are you sure we're
headed in the direction we came?”

“I don't know, to tell you the truth,” he
shrugged. “We've been walking blind for a while and I may have lost
my sense of direction when running for my life up there. We
could’ve also missed a turn when we were in the dark.”

Anlon continued forward. “I guess we’ll find
out if we end up in the nest of some monster.”

The white goo on the wall built up thicker
the further that they went and quickly covered the entire tunnel
from ceiling to floor. They slugged through the thick residue and
came to an opening that dropped straight down. Anlon peered over
the drop and backed up into Fausto.

“It's almost a straight drop, but there are
footholds we can use to get down.”

“What?” Fausto asked, pushing forward to
look out the tunnel. “You've got to be kidding me. I'm too old to
be running this much and climbing down walls like this.”

Anlon looked back out and thought it
appeared to be a cave with an orange pool at the bottom. Daylight
could be seen just poking its way in from somewhere near the
bottom. If there was any chance of getting out of here this was
it.

“Looks like it's the only way, Fausto,”
Anlon started to climb down. “It's only a few hundred feet, I'm
sure we'll make it.”

“Yeah, only a few hundred. I knew I
should've stayed in my cave.”

Anlon climbed down, making sure every
foothold was secure before taking the next treacherous step. He
called all the footholds up to Fausto so he’d know where to go
before making his moves. It took them awhile, but they eventually
reached the bottom without falling or anything attacking them. Now,
they had to find a way out.

“Have you found anything Fausto?” He asked,
afraid to break the news to him.

“There's no way out!” Fausto replied. “We
have to go back up and through the tunnels.”

“Or there's that exit,” Anlon pointed.

“No. There's no way we're getting out that
way.”

“Is it any
riskier
than getting
eaten by that four legged creature?”

“How are we going to even travel through
there?”

Anlon looked at the exit to see if there was
something that would let them pass over the lava that streamed
through a tunnel with light beaming through at the end. The cave
was close if they’d gone the right direction, but the only way to
get to it was to cross the lava. Anlon walked around the cave,
frantically trying to find something, anything that wouldn’t burn
up. He kicked nearby rocks in the lava in frustration when he’d
found nothing. Fausto turned to him to see what was the matter and
ran to him with a smile spread across his face.

“You're a genius!”

“What?” Anlon asked. “I didn't find
anything.”

“The black rocks! They don't sink! We can
use them to get across!”

Anlon looked down and saw the rocks floating
on the lava. “Let's find one big enough to fit the both of us!”

They turned and scavenged the cave for a
rock large enough for the both of them. There were plenty of the
black rocks scattered throughout the cave, but none were large
enough for even one of them. Fausto called over from the other side
of the cave.

“This one big enough?” He pointed.

Anlon's jaw dropped when he saw a rock that
appeared to be carved in the shape of a raft. A smile grew across
his face and he shook his head at their luck. It took the both of
them to pull it back and a swarm of blue insects flew out and
encircled them. The rock smashed to the ground as they both raised
their weapons and began firing.