The Deadliest Haunted Castle (17 page)

The surrounding space was incredible, and
was packed with a density that was not thought possible, and had
been for a long time, and such a state of density and such large
suns would have caused the whole region to collapse into a huge
black hole or at least an immense sun or suns, and scientists and
everyone else aboard had been and were investigating it and
thousands of other discovered phenomena.

Many scientists and others thought the whole
place was a central galaxy where all the rest of the universe was
imploding to, and that there were outer small galaxies being pulled
into.

The two paranormal scientists had tried
informing others of their investigations of paranormal disturbances
there, and had soon withheld their research from them, as they had
soon found out that they refused to accept anything of that nature,
and they now avoided giving any details of anything of that nature,
especially to the military.

They had given Kruger some of their findings
and thoughts of paranormal activity and strange occurrences
occurring there, and he had given them his thoughts about it, and
that he was not fully sure what to make of it as they had only
proven that large amounts of strange energy surges and energy
reactions were coming from there, and it was then that they had
informed him of the discovery of the world that they were on, and
that they had detected it as one of the high energy spots being
investigated by them.

Since the main point of investigation of the
GX1 was worlds, and that nobody had else found any proper worlds,
it was soon a major place to investigate, and the scientists all
voted to go to the world, and the two paranormal scientist were
congratulated with another major discovery when they found it not
only inhabitable but full of advanced and unknown phenomena, and
mind-bending wonders, which were detected from the GX1, and with
there being so many scientists and others being on the voyage for
such discoveries, a hundred vehicles were allowed out to map and
investigate it.

They found the remains of some form of
advanced civilization, at the opposite region of the world, from
scans of the world from orbit, before it had landed, and many
wanted to see the site.

Kruger had been amazed at the findings of
the scientists on the day before they had left the ship. There were
energy surges and strange occurrences all around the world, and
sightings of life forms and what was thought to be entities all
over the world.

Nobody, not even the two paranormal
scientists, knew what was there, and many even withdrew from
visiting there, especially after the encounter with the alien.

The other scientists ignored that and
continued with their explorations.

Kruger had wished to join the two paranormal
scientists at first, as he knew they wished to visit somewhere in
particular and that they had found something there, but he had
decided not to disappoint Major Ripley and to join him.

Kruger wondered where the two scientists
were, and if they had crashed like they had, and he watched the
pale sun vanish into the thickening gray mist, which started to
surround them.

Chapter 8

The Fog

On the horizon a big moon brightly shone more
light across their path, as it rose over the horizon, with its
lunar radiance reflecting intense starlight, and Kruger studied it
with surprise, watching swirled clouds shifting over its surface,
as he had not seen a moon with an atmosphere and clouds, and he
even saw areas of water and green shades of what had to be large
vegetation.

The fog crept over the landscape and began
covering most of the swamps, and thickened so much that the
powerful beams of starlight could only penetrate thin areas of
it.

As they marched on behind Major Ripley
almost walking into it, while ignoring it, Larsen started getting
nervous and began complaining to Major Ripley, who ignored him at
first, with being so determined to get away from the region of the
vehicle.

His legs became stuck in a deep bog of
stinking vegetation, and Kruger saw he was getting tired, and
watched the others and noticed that they were complaining too.

It was then that Major Ripley finally
slowed, and Kruger looked about, and saw that the fog made a circle
around them, at the same distance all the way round them, and was
intensifying rapidly, and he knew that they were trapped in it.

“
Where are we going
...?
”
Larsen moaned heavily, tired, fighting for air, angry that he
had been put into another situation.

Major Ripley stopped annoyed at the way
things were going, and walked back towards them.

“
What is the problem?
We
’
ve hand
held weapons that have been used on worlds all over our
galaxy
–
which have beaten some of the most largest, deadliest,
invincible, and advanced aliens and civilizations
...
”

He swiftly removed his weapon like an
ancient gunfighter, and swiftly smashed an immense meteorite
boulder into dust, and disintegrating the rest in seconds.

Kruger and Don
got his point, and it amazed Kruger that the vehicles had seemed so
defenseless against attacks. On normal worlds their hand weapons
were enough, and as powerful as the largest bulky weapons on most
aliens worlds, and were probably of actually great use here if
their imaginations never kept throwing situations up of what could
exist, which the alien in the void had done, since it declared war
on them.

It was only
thought that higher intelligent beings of big advanced
civilizations had the means to match their defenses.

Just to create
a weak version of the energy shield of the GX1 took far more energy
than most of the largest alien spacecrafts could produce.

“
You
never saw that thing kill the rest of my crew!” Larsen moaned,
slightly satisfied by the dramatic display and the deadliness of
their weapons, reminding him of the power of the weapons, which
they had not used.

Major Ripley
seemed to recall some of his old training, and pointed at the
weapons on their spacesuits, and ordered them to remove them, and
they removed them, and he had them practice firing them at
objects.

Kruger fired
away at distant objects amazed their power, and continued firing
into the distance, testing what range they could go to. It amazed
him that they never got the chance to use them. He was even sure by
the way people reacted to them that there was some rule and
spacecraft rule preventing people using them, unless it was they
had to, to save their lives.

He still
thought that they should have more of the military on the vehicles
though. He tried firing into a dense area of the thick fog, now
going around them like wheel rim, and was amazed that it reacted
and split open to avoid the energy blasts, and it quickly filled
itself in afterwards.

The world about their sides was full of
swamps, bogs, ditches, and bubbling pools of stinking chemicals and
water. Chemicals in thick concentrated pools poured out gases
through the cooling air giving it a sulfur stench, which they gave
an occasional cough to, when it got deep and concentrated in their
lungs.

The fog
crept more rapidly towards them all around them, and Major Ripley
gasped slightly, and smelt the air, and announced mainly to Larsen,
“We’ll have to enter that! There is no other way! Besides we will
be getting help here
soon
...”

“
From
your communications device – giving out our location?”

“
Correct! There is not enough power in the thing for
communications at the distance the others are, but it will give our
location to them ...”

“
So we
only need to handle this fog ...” Don coolly replied, surprising
Major Ripley again with his coolness, which always seemed to be
there, as though he knew what would happen.

It gave Kruger
a great deal of happiness thinking that he was not just a twin, but
Don was him from the future, and that he would survive such
situations.

Yet at times
he doubted it, and knew time could be altered anyway. He wondered
if he shot himself, and Don was a future version of him, if he
would vanish upon his death.

Chapter 9

Trapped

The fog
engulfed them, and swiftly thickened up about them, and blinded
them, but in areas in thinned out and they caught glimpses of the
ground beneath their feet as they plodded on, wondering if the
others could actually find them there, and why they had not taken
more drastic measures earlier on to avoid it, when it had started
appearing.

Kruger studied
the thick fog about him, seeing what it did, and saw that it
reacted less now that they were in it and not at the fringes of it,
and wondered if he was part of it or something now, or it just
considered them part of it.

Suddenly, a light appeared deep in the fog
to their side, and Major Ripley took them close to it, surely
considering if it was the recovery vehicle. Yet Kruger watched it
vibrating up and down, and brighten, and its beam pointed near
them.

A sluggish gurgling of something wading deep
in and out of bogs ahead moved their way, confusing them more, and
Major Ripley stopped his rush forwards, and came to a halt in a
thinner area of fog where the visibility was better, and his
familiar rugged look shone out of the fog, listening and observing
everything ahead, in confusion.

He then placed the light near his head, and
stood with his light shining over his face.

“
We
better be prepared ...” he muttered. “I never heard any vehicles
sounds from there ...”

“
I never
either ...” Kruger agreed, looking concerned, considering what they
were encountering.

“
We
better have our weapons ready then!” Major Kruger stated, removing
his weapon, and waited for the others to remove their weapons and
get the feel of them.

“
Perhaps we should inform the others
in the vehicles?
”
Larsen asked.
“
We could check if it is anything to do with
them?
”

Major removed his communicator, and silently
started trying to contact the vehicle with Major Douglas, and when
he could not pick it up he tried to contact any vehicle that he
could, and stood surprised when he never.

“
Could
this fog stop the communicators working ...?” he asked them, trying
to grasp the situation.

“
Not
normally!” Kruger answered first. “But this fog, and it being on
this world, in an alternative universe, changes the
rules.”

“
So once
again it could be anything!”

Larsen moved
in close, to show his worried features.

“
Don’t
forget that thing that attacked us ...” he stated, and moved
backwards, as Don moved in, and Kruger examined him, and his forced
reactions.

“
Will
they be able to detect where we are with the communicators out?”
Don asked them, with a glimpse of worry.

Kruger could
not be certain if he was really reacting or not!

Yet it did
seem as though he was experiencing new things now, and had not
actually gone through the encounters, and he was sure that if he
was from the future that things had changed as they were now in an
alternative universe, and he was reacting to the fact that he would
be experiencing new things, and he wondered again if he was there
to prevent something from happening, without altering anything
else.

Yet Kruger
realized that there was no real proof, and that his reactions were
really different, and he saw that he could not depend on such
fantasies, and he recalled that he had not originally believed in
time travel, and especially not in traveling backwards in time.

Why had
nothing been discovered there? The technology and all the research
into it would have at least proven its existence!

Major stood
checking his communicator device, and put it away, and avoided
replying to Don. Surely to avoid adding to their problems!

“
There was a device on my spacesuit
sending out footage of what happened!
”

“
So we better stay around
here!
”
Larsen added.
“
As they will arrive there then
...
”

“
Correct! But we better check what
that light is as best as we can, without being
seen.
”

Kruger realized that he would properly never
experience anything like this place and this universe again if he
made it back alive to the normal universe and the Earth. He would
remember it forever, and he was sure he would be remembered in the
history books for taking part in it all.

He wondered if it would be proven that time
travel existed, and he realized if it did and Don had traveled back
in time that he would have to go through everything over again, and
that he may alter things and do things differently from what Don
had done, and that he might do something that alters things by
accident, and that he could also be stuck in a scenario of travel
back in time and living out the events for the rest of his
life.

Chapter 10