The Alien Artifact 8 (9 page)

Chapter 18

The Second Hill

What had he done? Cronenberg completely
realized his mistake and gasped, and examined the dark Martian
landscape about him, with some amazement, astonished he was on
another world!

Out of the silent empty Martian night
high-powered rifle blasts were astonishing, especially in the deep
darkness engulfing him, threatening to totally blind him! The
explosions were so powerful that he believed a powerful explosive
was used in the bullets, and again he was staggered that he could
hear anything in such a thin atmosphere!

Someone definitely was trying to kill him,
and as he rushed furiously away through thick reddish Martian sand,
with his legs sinking deep, deeper and deeper in regions,
threatening to impede him completely, and even turn to some form of
quicksand!

Why he had been so stupid as to leave the
shuttle without anyone else, and without saying anything, and even
without any form of communications, and he wondered why he kept
doing such things on Mars, which he never did on the Earth!

He had left the two shuttles, on his own, and
as it was getting dark, and he had entirely underestimated the
depth of the sand there, and that there was even anything there,
which had impeded his speed for a long time and by the time he
reached the hill, in the southerly direction, south of the last
hill he had climbed, when they had crashed there.

He had to see the hill as he was sure it was
really where there was something, and he was sure it had been where
Anders and the scientist had intended to land, and he had known
that he would never have a chance to search there again!

More high-powered rifle shots blasted out and
hit the ground behind him and he realized how deep the darkness was
now, and why he had survived, especially when the person had been
close!

His pale cold complexion had entirely altered
now and his face was bright red! Sounds of his heavy breathing and
outer sounds took strange tones as he started trying to explain
what they were, and he strained his eyes trying to see in front of
him, and in the darkness he spotted the mountain stone was nearby,
and that he would entirely escape the sand there, where he would
have to escape from the gunman behind him!

While he rushed furiously on he thought of
the injured state the survivors of Eagle’s shuttle crash had been
in, and their account of what had landed them there, and he thought
of all the things they said, and when he had realized that
something had definitely landed them there, as the they had
approached from the south, and he had worked out the distance that
they had claimed it had taken control of their shuttle, and then
the distance it had been taken control of at the other side, as
they had approached from the north, and he had worked out where the
central point was, and the hill that he was going to had been
directly in the middle, and he was sure it was where there was
something, and that it had been only able to use its powers on both
shuttles at a certain distance, at either side of it.

Though there was no sign of the diamonds
being there he was sure they had to be there somewhere, and he
wondered what the hell the connection was between them and what had
made them crash there.

The solid ground ahead of him increased in
size, as he slowly got nearer and nearer, and he considered using
his light, by flashing it, to get a brief view of what was fully
there, and where to run, but he decided not to as the person would
see him and could easily shoot him.

He was sure it had to be someone from one of
the other shuttles, as he had the same reactions, and he realized
how desperate they had become to get the diamonds and he blamed it
all on Eagle and his scheme to get the treasure, and have all the
shuttles search and have himself go to that site, and crash.

Something staggered him about the mission and
the fact that from the very start he sensed something was going to
occur, and had seen something approaching, edging its way towards
him, which he knew he could not avoid! He had to go through with
it! And he somehow thought he could survive if he did everything he
could and avoided a deadly mistake!

It was unexplored Mars! It had new dangers
there! It was exploring where nobody had been before, with its
great deadly environment with its hidden dangers! The region they
were in was the least explored and the great Antarctica!

He could hardly believe he was at the
legendary Martian Antarctica, and he still sensed there was
something strange there! Something he had not encountered before!
Something that could only exist at such a place, out in the depths
of space, which might not be able to exist on the Earth, and it
gave him an even more chilling sensation of something he could not
grasp!

As he accelerated on, closing in on the dark
stone of the hill, he increasingly felt a presence of something,
somewhere, in the chilling darkness of the alien world around them,
which he realized never existed earlier.

Whoever was after him had to be stark raving
mad and out for the kill, and was stupid for going to such levels
to kill him, as if they found his body, which they would surely
discover, as they would find his footsteps in the sand from near
the shuttles and would be able to trace him, and the other person’s
prints, and there would be someone that noticed the person had not
been around, and he could not realize who was there and just
accepted that he was trying to kill him to get the diamonds, which
might have been detected by them!

The place had to be located in the coldest
place he had been in and he detected it in places all about him,
and it had the look of being the most remote place! Even in the
summer the place was been highly deadly to any form of life!

He could not grasp why the person was so
positive that there were diamonds, and could go so far to get
them!

The dangers and the coldness made him cringe
and blindly rush on through the blinding blackness, almost lost,
and he wondered why people took such risks and gambled so far.

A loud explosion blasted out and a bullet
thudded somewhere nearby and he had to jump through the sand into
the dark landscape for his life! He dared not use his light now,
and he could barely see anything!

The man could be heard over to his side
behind him and he realized that he could have an infrared sight and
was playing with him and when he reached the stone area below the
hill he just dived at it and ran as fast as he could into the
darkness, going straight to an area of small hills nearby, at the
bottom of the hill, and that was covered up from being seen by the
gunman, and once there he rushed round a hill and rushed towards
one of another five hills, which he chose randomly, and immediately
rushed around, and realized he had finally got away from him, and
with delight saw many more small stone hills going over to the base
of the large main central hill, and randomly kept rushing through
different hills, covering up any sign he was there, and made sure
his footsteps were not visible and he was not being watched, and he
saw the gunman had vanished behind him.

Once he realized that he had escaped he
started to enjoy going slower and being free from being attacked,
and he thought through what had occurred!

Why would he go to such lengths to kill him?
Surely the diamonds were not worth that much? There had to be
something else! What else could possibly be there? What could be
there in such a desolate place?

Suddenly it was like he recognized the place
and mysteriously followed routes through different hills, and was
constantly surprised that he knew things were there before he
arrived and went around corners, and felt he could find somewhere
to hide there and when he finally found a hiding place at the hill
itself, in a small tunnel in a large pile of large boulders, and he
rushed into the small tunnel going through and around the boulders
until he reached the hill itself and found himself surrounded by a
small hidden cavity, where he hid, and faced outwards, buried away
in the boulders, seeing if he could see anything, and checked for
any gaps in the boulders, and when he found there were no holes or
places light could escape he turned on his light and quickly
checked his oxygen supply, and spare tanks, and realized he could
escape in the morning, before it was light, and realized the person
would eventually return to the shuttles, if he never found him, as
he saw the person never had extra oxygen tanks.

He rested and started going over everything
and what had happened and he wondered if something else was
occurring that he never knew of, and why they had been so
determined to get the diamonds as there was no real proof of the
diamonds existing, anyway, and he had seen the diary Eagle had,
which had belonged to the scientist, and the diary had virtually
nothing in it as far as he was concerned, and he recalled Eagle
mentioning that that the location was hidden away on the map and he
realized that Orwell had to have told him, and convinced him there
was definitely something there, but Orwell never knew of the map,
and he had not told anyone, and he had been sure Eagle thought he
had it, and he recalled that someone did know he had it, and it was
Rosenberg, as he had seen him take it out of Anders’s
spacesuit!

Chapter 19

The Light in the
Night

Cronenberg’s
dreams were strange and as though he was floating through mist,
which shifted about beneath him, and he never recognized anything,
and he was too tired to awaken, and he observed it all with
amusement, and an annoying whispering sound that he kept listening
to, from some unseen place, which sounded artificial when he firmly
listened.

The events of
the past days haunted him and he kept wondering where things were
going, and it was incredible as he had not done anything like it in
years, and even then it was nothing like it!

Lights twinkled
through thick areas of mist on the horizon. A bright light suddenly
appeared, deep in the vapor. It oscillated and intensified.

He tried
imagining the astronaut who had chased him as he tried to realize
something that he could not grasp about him and he was surprised
that he appeared and how authentic he was, and he studied the
perfect copy in detail, with the strange light there glowing over
him.

He resembled
someone! He could not grasp! He realized no face features had been
visible, and the person was somehow different, and he nearly
grasped it when a strange loud gurgle came from somewhere. He
sensed the presence of something mysterious somewhere nearby, or
existing about him, and he felt danger existed and he swiftly
opened his eyes and was surprised to see a light in the cavity, and
he rapidly searched the tunnel where he had come in and saw there
was nothing there, and turned to where he had been facing while
dreaming and adjusted his blurred eyes, and sat upright staring at
it trying to see what it was, and realized it was there and was not
projected there, and he wondered if it was some form of volcanic
disturbance, and a crack into some form of volcano, where there was
molten rock, and realized it was Mars and things were different and
that molten rock might not explode out, as the lava flow was
nothing like on the Earth

It was not
there before he went to sleep, as he would have seen a crack there,
and the crack was too new looking, and he realized that it must
have appeared about when he started dreaming, and he tried to work
out why and he decided that him being there, and his weight and
frantic rush into the cavity might have altered the weakened rock
and allowed it to break, and he realized that if it got worse it
could breakthrough.

A deep thud
appeared within the rock and he heard a familiar sound and realized
it was the annoying whispering sound in his dream that he kept
listening to, from some unseen place, which had sounded artificial,
and he listened to it with his ear against the rock and he heard it
was a powerful vibration from something, and when he firmly
listened he was sure something was breaking through, and he checked
his watch and wondered if the astronaut with the gun was still
about outside, hunting him down, and he examined the crack in the
rock and was surprised when he checked it lower down and his eyes
adjusted and he saw a cave there and the powerful light was coming
from something strange in the distance.

What amazed him
was before he checked he knew he could enter the cave, and he
grabbed the edge of the crack and started pulling chunks of
crumbling rock away, opening the gap wider and wider, until he had
a hole large enough to enter, and he stood blinded by the bright
light beaming out into the dark night, and surrounding cavity, and
prepared to enter it, and was surprised at the formation of the
cavity and it looked almost artificial made.

As he swiftly
entered the hole he was surprised that it was a very long tunnel
and he cautiously marched along it, going deep into the hill.

Mind-bending sounds and echoes from what he
was sure was volcanic activity increased and came through the shaft
with fury and left him stunned at the dangers, and no matter how he
tried to shake it off and contemplate its full identity he never
formed stable recognitions of what was occurring there, and why the
light was so powerful, and almost like laser light or light from
the sun!

The vibration
going through the rock reminded him of a fault line and he accepted
it had to be some form of volcanic activity, and he slowed down and
prepared himself to run if he anything came towards him, and he
probed his way through the large hole in the hill, and as he went
along he realized that there was some form of breeze blowing from
ahead and he realized the dangers he could be in and that there
could be highly explosive volcanic gases, and that if he never
caused a spark it could be ignited by the volcanic activity, and he
checked the walls and ground around him searching for signs of it
having occurred before, and if the lava had been through there, and
he saw nothing, and there was no sign of scorch marks or anything,
other than it was as if something had blasted its way through
it.