The Mobile Maze in the Fallen Clouds

The groaning sounds of a person in the trunk of the moving car slightly overpowered the noisy engine under the roaring dark sky. The rough road began to melt as the car's wheels hit the potholes. The branches and the leaves of the trees along its forgotten path began swaying harshly as the wind got stronger and fiercer like angry gods who unleashed their power to punish the sinners. "What time is it now?" A moderate sound from a woman's voice asked. The black hood she wore, it covered her face against the ray from the lightning. "Exactly 24 hours like you estimated. Our journey ends here." A man behind the wheel with a croaky voice answered while he looked at his wristwatch. He stopped the car. "Why do we stop?" A man with a hoarse voice from the backseat broke his silence. The driver used the high beam headlights to show the flooded creek with a strong current ahead of them. Another two guys in black suits who were seated from the last row of the back seats removed the blindfold from their eyes and went out of the car headed to the boot. They took someone  wrapped in a black cloth out of the trunk and dragged towards the creek when the boss reminded them of something important before they passed by him. "Make sure that no single evidence can ever be found." The same man with the hoarse voice said. "Yes, Sir." The two responded and proceeded to dispose of the victim into the troubled water as the boss just watched from the car. The two guys were about to return to the car when the woman was already behind them with a g*n pointed at them. The rain water soaked completely in their black clothes when the four shots rang out. The two guys fell on the creek and the woman returned to the car after the two quickly vanished from her sight. "Good job, Sheiree." The boss complimented her, then shot her right away behind the car's door. Her body dropped on the muddy ground. "Let's go, Barbo." "Aye, boss." The driver hit the accelerator, but not that far away, Barbo realized something was wrong.  The car exploded only several  meters away and one of the two guys appeared from the creek, then ran quickly towards Sheiree. "Cousin!"  The rain got heavier and the thunder roared louder. "Nairu, how's the subject?" Sheiree asked as she struggled to speak. "She's fine. You did a good job." "And the other one?" "He was gone. Hang on, cousin." He held his cousin's cold hand. "Good. Now, you have to finish the mission. I'm sorry. You have to do it alone now." She weakly said as she choked with her blood that oozed slowly from her mouth. "Don't cry. We knew that this would happen at any time. This is part of the job's nature. Be strong, cousin. Be strong." She held his hand before her last breath silently expired. Nairu sobbed, but had no time to grieve when he heard some rumbling sounds from the trees. It was too late when he realized that it was not a creek, but a divided river and they were in the middle of it. The strong current of the rushing water swept everything on its path while Nairu managed to reach the subject who was asleep in a modified body bag and held her tight as the flood carried them away. *** Nairu woke up and the face of the subject startled him as she stared at him closely. His back was on the flat boulder of the canyon-like ravine. He got up. "Who are you and why am I here?" She asked with her soft, but powerful tone. "My name is Nairu. I worked with my cousin, Sheiree. She was a special agent who secretly investigated the Dar Marchian Effect. Somehow, you are involved with it and someone wanted to make you disappear forever to cover up their illegal project."  She stared at him, stickily like a duct tape that could peel off his skin using her tenacious eyes. "How do I know if you are telling the truth?" "Look. I lost my cousin before the water swept us away. She died doing her duty to protect you." He slowly stood up. He felt like his muscles crumpled from being stuck in one position for so long. She processed what she heard for seconds by nodding her head. "I'm sorry for your loss. I'm Ayeren and if I were you, don't push yourself to move while your body just started to adjust." Nairu's eyes skimmed around. "What is this place?" "I don't know. How about you. Before the flood happened, what was our location?" "I have no idea. Only that boss knew about the location." He truthfully replied. "Where are they?" "Gone. My cousin had already anticipated that they were going to kill her after killing us." "So, we are literally lost." She stood up and walked a little. She tried to look around the terrain. Then, she returned to him. "Wait. What do you know about the Dar..." He stood up and faced her. "...Dar Marchian Effect. It is a weapon, but a weapon that does not belong to our planet. They believed that an extraterrestrial guest had lost it. A certain company, a big company, has found it and illegally launched a study for multi-international commerce levels that run underground. The man with the hoarse voice was just one of the lower bosses who received and mobilized the command from the higher seats." He carefully explained. "But, how did I get involved?" In her eyes, there were so many reflections of curiosity and unanswered questions. "I don't remember anything that can maybe link me to this kind of illegal activity or a kind of syndicate." "I'm sorry, but I don't have the answer." "If you cannot give me an answer about how they dragged me into this situation, how about you?" He deeply sighed. "I was an ex-special agent. I just voluntarily rendered my help for my cousin's sake, because I knew her. She never said no to any of the missions that were assigned to her no matter how dangerous it was. I was just starting to know what it is really all about, but she's gone. I lost that opportunity to know that could probably save her life if I just knew about it before the plan was carried out. All I knew is that they wanted to remove any blockades that could harm their interest." Then, they heard a whirring helicopter above them. "Hide!" he said. They quickly ran into the shallow cove and took cover.  "Are they looking for us?" she wondered. He tried to take a better look and noticed something odd. "What is it?" "I have never seen that marking on the helicopter before." "What markings?" She crawled and tried to clarify what he told her. Then, she saw that the helicopter had a tail from behind and below, which alternately functioned as a kind of balance control. The markings were obviously for war. "Something is not right." "I know. We will move by night." "But, where shall we go?" She sat on the reddish and powdery ground. Then, she noticed his black backpack. "We shall follow the tail of this canyon-like ravine or go to the highest ground to see where we are." He noticed her rubbing her belly. He took his backpack off from his back and checked some ready to eat food. Then, he found some sweet candies. "Here, take this." She took three of them. "Thank you." "Let me know if you need some water." He sat on the opposite side just about a meter away from her. She just nodded. *** A modern town with fluorescent and incandescent lighting faintly exposed its radiant from a distance. However, nothing was mobile. It was a dead silence. *** Nairu took his flashlights out from his backpack and gave one to Ayeren. "It's time," he said. He looked up to see the sky. There was no single star and no moon.  "Let's go?" He nodded, "You walk behind me. We don't know if it is safe to go out at night. We will try to move as quietly as possible as we can." "I agree. You watch the front and I watch the rear." "Okay. Let's go," he whispered. They moved along the slightly slope area and headed to the highest ground. They walked carefully as the ground was so unstable. Pieces of small rocks and sands rolled down every time they took a step forward. They kept moving slowly and carefully, but continuously in the dark. *** It took an hour for them before they reached the ridge. There, they saw a lighted town in the middle of the trees' shadows about a few kilometers away below them.  "There's a town." Nairu breathed with ease. He wiped out his sweat from his forehead with his sleeves. "We need to continue moving, until we reach there." Ayeren tried to move the flashlight around. Nairu noticed it and stopped her. "I would not do that if I were you. It's not safe. I don't think we need some rescue from the unknown people if there are, or in this unknown place, negligently. We have to secure our safety by making our presence hidden, so we can observe our surroundings first. Then, later we discuss those observations and make careful decisions," he whispered. "You are right. I'm sorry." "It's okay. Let's continue moving. We need to camouflage in the trees." *** They continued. However, when they reached the first line of the trees, they felt something unusual. Nairu looked up. He tried to inspect the trees several feet away from him. It was gigantic. "Trees like those, they normally give off oxygen that will make your surrounding cold and fresh," he whispered. "I know. But, it is completely the opposite of what you just described." "What do you mean by the opposite of what I just described? Have you not been around with them?" "I was a traveler, a backpacker before everything happened. Therefore, I knew what kind of temperature should be present when trees are big like those." He looked around and noticed the trees' position. "I guess, there's no other way to reach that town, but to cross this field of trees. But, how?"  "The trees are like intentionally arranged in an alternate position, which means that we have to walk on a zigzag." She turned her flashlight's off and turned it on again. She did it thrice. "Have you noticed it?" "What?" He faced her.  "Look." She turned her flashlight's off and on. "Observe the branches." Then Nairu watched how the branches changed their position every time Ayeren turned her flashlight's on and off. "They interact with the light. Something that normal trees could not." "Hmm?" "Let's go. But, we need to turn our flashlights' off." Nairu took a few steps when they heard someone. "Turn your flashlight on if I were you. The trees interact in the darkness and the light froze them." They saw a man's shadow walk towards them from behind. "My name is Koya. Roaming at night is not a good idea. If you want to go to that town, do it during the day so you can see." "I am Nairu and she is Ayeren. If you don't mind, what is this place?" "Nice meeting you, still alive. The correct question is not what, but where. Let's go to my hideout. I'll tell you everything I know so you will know next time what is the right thing to do around here...around the Eye-Rain. That's the name of this place. Follow me." He walked away, but slowly with his flashlight's glim on the ground. *** They climbed up into the rocky hill where a desert-like river was visible from the top, a few meters away on the other side. It was like a deserted waterless river. "If you notice that side..." Koya pointed his finger. "...is so enticing, that's where the flood flows every ten years." Then, he stopped and moved the rock on the ground exposing a manhole. "Follow me." "There's no moon nor star, but that area appeared visible in the dark." Nairu found it extraordinary. They sneaked inside.  After every one of them was in, Koya closed the rock and went down with them. There, the light from the lamps made them feel at home. "What is that dry river about?" Nairu never forgot any unfinished discussion. Then, he saw a young boy with his mother beside him.  "She's my wife Ova and my son Rara. My parents died a year ago. Since I was a child, we have lived here. My father intentionally built this spot for my family's safety and to monitor that desert of the river. Every ten years, a dam of mysterious brown water just splashes through there. That's how my father met my mother. He found her almost lifeless at the edge of that sandy ground. He believed that she was involved with that incident. that took her memory." Mistrustful Nairu felt better finally after seeing the child.  "It's the same thing that happened to us. It was a stormy night and the flood just happened in an instant. The strong current of water carried us away to this place." "Stormy night you said?" Koya stared at them. "Yes. Heavy rain, flash floods..." Nairu tried to look for more words to say. "But, where did the water go?" Ayeren asked. "Nobody knows where the water goes. My father attempted to cross that deserted area that almost cost his life. He could not explain how the sands stay on the ground while it is shallow under it. It's like floating without water or placed on an invisible matting. We don't know. And at the end of that area are just solid rocks. You are lucky that you landed somewhere before you reached there in the middle." "What is Eye-Rain?" "When I was young, my father had told me that every decade, a heavy rain occurs. And it does occur like a decennial catastrophe. We are all preparing for it because every time it happens, people are dying from that calamity. Death is usually due to drowning, electrocution, severe injuries, diseases, and missing cases without a trace." "The town that we saw lately. How many people are there?" Nairu's curiosity aroused.  "That town is empty during the night. Like us, they hide." "Are they hiding around here?" Ayeren curiously asked.  "No. I don't think so...never seen a single one before." "How do you know that they are hiding?" Nairu crossed his arms. "We can take a seat." Koya moved his attention to his wife. "My love, please hand me over the carpet." Ova left and returned with a carpet. Koya took it from her and spread it on the flat ground. They sat on it. "How do I know that they are hiding? It's because the light that you saw is just generated by something that makes it light on as bait. Sometimes, you can see things around here that you think it is, but it's not. You have to be very careful of that because you don't know what is real and what is not. Something in this place which is not supposed to be here. It controls our surroundings and we are trapped in the middle of it. People here are using lamps after we lost power during the previous calamities. There are no more electricians who can fix the power problem." Then, Ova left again and returned with two cups of tea and sweet potatoes. She served the food to them. "Please accept our humble indigenous offer. We don't have much here." Then, Koya smiled at his wife.  "Thank you." Nairu took a cup of tea and one piece of a sweet potato.  Ayeren just bowed and smiled. "How long do you live like this?" Ayeren asked them both. "Thank you, dear." Koya gave his wife a single nod. Ova just politely left them. "She cannot speak." Koya deeply sighed. "My father was a teenager by the time this happened, until they had me. Then, until I met my wife during the last occurrence of Eye-Rain as we tried to save our lives from the furious water." "When did that happen?" Nairu leaned his back against the ground wall. "It was two months ago." "We saw a helicopter yesterday," Nairu remembered. "Your mind was tricked if that truly happened. There is no such thing around here. My father once said that there are some parts inside of the Eye-Rain Zone, which are not ideal to visit. Gaseous and dusty air can make you hallucinate. Once you are exposed, you start seeing things according to how your brain interprets what you see, hear, smell, touch and taste. Probably, you thought of a rescue team..." Then, he suddenly stopped. "Do you remember which part you saw?" "The helicopter?" Nairu clarified. "Yes." "It was just an hour slow-walk from where you saw us." "Are you sure?"  Nairu and Ayeren spotted the worries on Koya's face. They nodded. "Is there something wrong?" Ayeren could not just keep listening to them. "We will know tomorrow. Right now, we need to sleep. Pardon, but we don't have an ideal bedroom here. We don't have woods to utilize for making bed." "Don't worry about us. We are grateful enough for your hospitality." Ayeren leaned against the ground wall. "What happened to the trees?"  "I don't know. It just happens that they are mobile at night and look normal during the day somewhere. But, when you tried to cut them, red liquid began pouring. Smells like blood, and looks like blood. An old neighbor took  the cut branches to their house to dry for firewood. The next morning, we saw the entire family's bodies hanging on the trees like barbecues." "It's because those trees are no longer the trees that you used to have here."  The two of them looked at Ayeren who just fell asleep. They looked at each other. "How did you say that?" Nairu tried to see the proof from her. He remembered what Sheiree had told him before they dispatched for the mission. …"What kind of subject are you going to work on?" he asked. "She was seen and captured from the exclusive area of the Dar Marchian Effect. It threatened the higher command. She is not the subject who is supposed to be disposed of, but the severely injured body of the employee who discovered their anomalous activity inside of their unregistered laboratory." "What if you get caught?" He could not hide the worries he had about his cousin's safety. "You are the only one who knows about it. In case I failed, they have to believe that the subject is completely disposed of. The employee is in the care of my team and luckily survives. She will be held as a key witness once my team finds the vital proof." "What if they will know that you have disposed of the wrong subject, intentionally?" Sheiree just paused and looked at him. "The real threat to them is not the employee who discovered their doings, but her. I believed that she is not supposed to be coming from that site where no single living thing could be seen alive due to the high level of radiation behind the red line. But, she walked out normally from there before they had seen her. She was already out of the line when she was caught. However, I have seen with my two eyes where she came out...and she came out like us." "What do you mean like us?" Nairu began to pay attention seriously. "She didn't look like that before she reached the red line. She looks human, but..." She swallowed before she proceeded to say what she witnessed. "...it was the silhouette of the child." "You must be just tired at that time. I told you not to overwork and take enough rest sometimes." The unconvinced Nairu didn't take it seriously. "Call me anytime when you need assistance." He left after Sheiree nodded... "Why did you say that?" He revised his question hoping it could trigger the extraction of the answer. The answer that he didn't even care to hear, but the answer to his hidden question. "Because they are bound to something else." Ayeren replied in her dream while Nairu was in fact talking to her in real life. Nairu could not believe what he heard from her, but was still partially unconvinced. The answer to his hidden question was still insufficient. He deeply sighed. "Maybe, I am just tired." "We need to sleep now. Tomorrow, we will move. You can come with us if you want to." Koya stood up. "Why are you moving? I thought you lived here for a long time since your parents were still here." "Time changes and the situation already changed, unless you made a mistake remembering about the location where you found yourself for the first time in this place. If you are correct, then, it is not safe for us to stay here anymore. The danger is getting closer." "The helicopter is not just a hallucination, isn't it?" "It would be safer if it was real because that means this place is not really moving like a living maze. Goodnight, Nairu." Koya walked away with the cups, then headed to his wife and child who already slept on the matted ground. Nairu was left with a big puzzle in his mind as he tried to sleep sitting near Ayeren. *** The sun was up when Koya covered their hideout with a big rock. Everyone was ready to move. Nairu watched closely around and found no trees at all. "The trees are gone," he said. "As soon as the sun rises, they just disappear. That's our chance to go to town." Koya took their belongings and put them on his back while his wife held their son's hand. "Let's go." "I thought that the light could freeze them," he recalled. "That's why they moved before the sun rose." Ayeren walked with Nairu behind the couple. Nairu put on his backpack while Ayeren tried to help Ova. Ova just politely refused and smiled at her. They all went down to the slope and took advantage of the safe passage they had. *** They reached the middle part of the field where the trees swarmed at night. There was no print of disturbance ever left on the ground.  Koya noticed him. "Their presence is actually a total absence. They were there to harm you in real life, but they were not really there. That's why you cannot see any traces. It's confusing, isn't it?" "But how can they cause harm if they are not actually here?" The skeptical Nairu could not believe what he heard.  "Sometimes, when somebody wants to harm you, they can harm you without using any physical contact. It's because you are not just composed of your physical aspect, but also your emotional and psychological aspects as well. Your mental aspect alone can harm you if you don't know how to separate the reality from the unreal," Koya explained while they kept moving. *** They finally reached the town. Some people had eyes on them. The town folks wore the outdated  fashion of clothes while they had a modern style. "Their clothes..." Nairu started. "Don't say anything. Here, you have to learn to just watch and listen. You can observe, but don't gossip, especially when they are around us." "Ayeren, are you okay?" Nairu finally remembered that he was with someone besides the small family they just met. Ayeren just nodded and smiled at him.  There were shops around, and some private establishments made of stones. The infrastructure was like an early modern era People lived ordinarily. It looked like a normal sunny day. Then, a woman approached them. "Koya! Finally, you have decided to visit us. It's been a very, very long time, but I can still recognize you. You don't change a bit. You still look exactly the same as before you left." A woman smiled while she could not hide the cold ice in her eyes. "Hello, Manyi. How are you? How's my best friend?" Manyi suddenly looked sad. "I'm sorry, Koya, but he passed away. He tried to walk again after the incident and accidentally fell down the stairs. I'm sorry if I didn't tell you. I have no idea where to find you. How about you?"  The bad news was a surprise to Koya. It saddened him. The husband of Manyi was his childhood best friend. They did so many wonderful things together in the past and fought side by side to keep their families safe.  "Manyi, we need your help. We need a temporary roof." Koya softly replied. Manyi looked straight in his eyes. "Are you in trouble?" Koya shook his head. "No. We just need to leave our home because something has changed." Manyi understood what Koya meant. "Let's go inside." She headed to a small cabin with fixed glass windows. *** They sat on the sofa. Manyi went to the kitchen to serve them drinks. Ayeren stood up and looked around the living room while the rest remained seated. Manyi came back holding a tray. "Here. Drink some juice. You must be thirsty." "Anyway, This is Nairu and that is Ayeren." Koya introduced them. "Manyi is my best friend's wife." "It's nice to meet you," Nairu greeted. Ayeren just politely smiled at her with a single bow. Manyi smiled back at them. "Nice to meet you, too. I need to get something from the kitchen, so just have a drink and feel at home." She smiled again and left for the kitchen. "Don't mind us, Manyi. Just take your time." Koya responded, positively. Ayeren continued looking at the pictures on the picture frames hanging on the wall. Until, she saw a picture of a group of people. Then, she recognized one man beside Manyi. The person in the picture alarmed her.  "Don't!" She silently stopped them. However, it was too late. Ova and their son Rara already drink a lot, except for Nairu and Koya who were about to take a sip. Nairu put the glass of juice on the table as he stared at her. Ayeren's first reaction startled him.  Just seconds later, the mother and child vomited. Small amount of blood oozed from their mouth. Nairu, who knew the symptoms, panicked. Koya hugged his son when Rara suddenly convulsed.  "They are poisoned." Nairu silently exclaimed. Ayeren picked up a sharp object and pricked her forefingers and put her palms on their wrist while Koya tried to keep his son awake. Nairu helped Ova to stay conscious. The victims' lips turned purple slowly, but after a full minute, their lips slowly turned red. Nairu and Koya could not believe what they witnessed. Ayeren's veins were transparently visible and functioned like suctions. They saw the violet color of the juice that they tried to drink in Ayeren's veins entering her blood system. Then, the mother and child felt better before she let their wrists go. Ayeren pricked her little finger and they watched the violet color exited from it. "We need to leave. She's going to kill you once the people are gathered. I'll tell you later how I found out." Ayeren told them. Koya took his backpack and cuddled his son while Ova held his hand. Nairu and Ayeren were next to them. "Where are we going?" Nairu asked when the bell rang loudly. "Now, they knew." Ayeren told them.  "How did you know?" Nairu tried to know as they walked faster. "It's not the time. Walk straight. Don't turn," she said. They found her strange, but they obeyed her instructions. She saved their lives and realized that someone with them knew better than anyone else around. They ran towards the West where the dark clouds hoarded. Then, they heard a loud movement from the ground with loud disturbing noises of people from behind. "Run. They are infected." Ayeren informed them. "Infected with what?" Nairu kept running. "Someone infected them with it." "What? What do you mean?" Nairu could not contain his confusion. "Just kept running. You don't want to see them face to face. They are very violent. Even if they don't eat flesh, they can kill you. They are not zombies and they are completely alive, but they are living like dead with no sensation's left. That's the reason why some of them are severely mutilated and injured because they don't feel it. And that's the reason why they are very aggressive because they don't feel anything, physically. However, they mentally suffer. Their pain and their irresistible desire to harm is the only function's left in their brain." "Are they contagious? Killable?" Koya asked her. "Yes, killable and yes, very contagious when you are physically in contact with them. That's why we have to stay away from them as much as possible. Just head straight." They just listened to her. They kept running until they reached the rocky dead end.  The infected crowd was already behind them. They had to get away before the infected would catch them first. However, the rock was too steep to climb and it was too late for them to go back to change direction. The infected had already blocked the other turn. Ayeren put her ears against the wall and she listened. Then, she heard a soft and shallow sound. She knew by then that there was a deep c***k somewhere in that rock after she felt an icy air from the inside. She looked for it and found a small passage above them.  "Here!" she called. "Quick! They are right behind us!"