Eden At last

Rendezvous In The Spaceship

Red beams from the tactical lights sprung to Alfred and Milo’s foreheads. They weren’t moving an inch; remained stagnant at the scene. But the red beams weren’t moving either, so they had to make a move. Toni shouted, “What in the world are you to doing”. The moment they heard her voice and twisted their heads in response, the laser shots missed their brains by a finger-breadth. Finally, they crouched and covered their heads with their arms, while they backed off to the rest of the crew. Loud yells beneath them rung in the atmosphere, infiltrating the quietude. A buzzing sound was heard next, and then one of vessels winged above to a point where the crew had a clear optical sight of its vigour. Seconds later, it discharged a missile at them which blasted in their vicinity.

“Run!!! Every one runn”, screamed Toni.”We can barely outrun them”, cried Matthew.”Then, split up and run… and rendezvous in the east corner of the cliff”, yelled Alfred.”Don’t forget to be alive”, called Milo as he hurried his way to the other side of the woods. Each of them settled their own routes, haphazardly. Alfred was not deep in the woods, rather was lurking at the margins of the forest. He was advancing to the east of the cliff, switching tracks in between. Meanwhile, a search party was introduced in the woods. They were equipped with laser fuelled guns, which had high projectile range. Everything, which happened to tremor in front of their sight was vaporised within seconds. At, the SE corner of the cliff, a narrow vent ran down the walls of the cliff. It had probably, eroded by strong flush of water. The gully wasn’t much sheer and it happened to lead to a space vessel situated in the lower land. That particular vessel was smaller in size than the other ones at the exhibition of the armada. It also had a dissimilar design; was much more of a compact and well built vessel. Alfred cautiously scaled down the ravine, stepping on small rocky formations sticking out of the plane. The soil was coarse and red, diffused with Iron Oxide. The red soil tarnished Alfred’s cloth fabrics, discolouring its novel dye. Much of his jeans were torn apart, in the vigorous climb. Back at the ranch, most of the dwellers had hid themselves under the shadows of the monumental canopies. Milo was dashing all the way to the trail of the trekkers (the path where they all started from) but he soon became conscious of Alfred’s plan to rendezvous at the east part of the cliff.

                                                                                                                             The woods functioned like a labyrinth; the denser one goes, the more lost one gets. After a minute’s run inside the forest; the crew got entangled, barely understanding the way to the out. Alfred had, by then landed on the ground. He crawled to a rock formation of the size of a gorilla. The gorilla-sized rock hid his body from lain sight and also allowed him to peek at the space shuttle from a distance. The area around the shuttle seemed clear of any hinderance. Yet he gazed upon the scenery for nearly half an hour, refusing to ignore any bit of detail. Milo and the rest had linked up with each other and were heading to the east as per the plan. They hadn’t yet encountered the search party but were not very far from its reach. After a total scrutiny of the space shuttle, Alfred was finally convinced that there was no trace of any sort of activity. Consequently, it meant that the vessel was clear for an internal introspection. He had already made his mind for the endeavour, and was looking for the right moment. Since there couldn’t be any margin for error, he took so much time to judge the risks. But then, there wasn’t much for him to lose, apart from his physical self. A small retractable bridge was extended from the space shuttle; apparently it was the entrance gate. Alfred sneaked in through the gate, sliding past a CCTV right above the gate. The ship was loaded with CCTVs, at every hinge and crook of the walls. A bluish neon light glowed from the walls, making the place dim lit. His pupils had to dilate, and his eyes had to strain over the feeble light from the glowing sticks in the walls. A walk through the corridor was intensely travailous. Yet, Alfred hadn’t met any of the aliens in the short invasion of his own.

His clothes drained with sweat, the forehead became patchy with long strands of hair. His hair at that period of time was of his shoulder’s length and it became impossible for him to control its activity. It always took him a considerable amount of time to comb his hair and set it one place. During this time of distress caused by his hair, he usually uses his mind to dream of a hair cut followed by a sauna bath. Gradually, his fascination for a decent hair cut and a sauna bath ended abruptly, when he heard a murmur in the wind. The murmurs grew closer and accompanied with padded footsteps. What could be deduced from the sound was that whatever was approaching him was plural. He was standing at the edge of the corridor, sticking his body closely to the wall. The sound appeared to originate from another corridor that inter crossed the one Alfred was walking on. The first thing that came to his mind was to ambush the party, but since he wasn’t looking forward to an out-numbered competition, the plan was dis-regarded. A more sagacious idea would be to hide from their sight. But there wasn’t a scope for him to plan a decent camouflage. The guests already emerged from the edge of the wall.”Milo… Toni… what are you doing here?” called out Alfred shrilly.” Arghhh… who the hell are ya? Alfred”, cried Milo as he turned his head towards him.”What are you doing here? Aren’t we supposed to meet at the cliff?” asked Toni. “Yeah… I told you to stay there, and how long have you been following me?” said Alfred in frustration.”Till the time you hopped into this star-trek toy, without a notice”, Milo mocked in wonder.”So you bring the whole pack?” Alfred’s voice intensified with irritation.” Would you guys top now…” said Toni.” Hey guys”, Alfred put on a fake beam of greeting. Milo confronted Alfred’s rage with an eye to eye conversation. They couldn’t relax; and that’s when Toni shut them off. Someone, tapped Alfred’s left shoulder continuously, forcing him to turn around.” What?” yelled Alfred. His face turned pale in a second. The loud outbursts and yells, had called for unwanted attention.