Chapter Three 'Contact'
THE MORNING OF day ten was especially cold. Without much warm gear, Forrest felt the bitterness all the more profoundly, and although he tried to snuggle up in pile of leaves and earth he called a bed, it really did not offer enough comfort.
Droplets of water crested his eyebrows and moisture had settled all over his face, as result of the heavy morning dew. Groggily-eyed he rose, leaning on the soggy bark of a tree to gain his balance as his eyes adjusted to the new day's light. Moss had frost highlighting their edges, as did the leaves of the trees, whilst soft, yellow shafts of light beamed down through the tree canopy. It was a beautiful place; he made a mental note to use that vacation leave he was due and visit this world when, or if, he ever got home.
The sun was high in the sky by the time Forrest was well into the woods; his battery was at a decent 28% thanks to some clever economising. It was then that Forrest heard the most welcoming sound he had heard in a long, long time: BOOM.
A series of faint booms and bangs originated in front of him, clearly some distance away. It was no thunder- there were no clouds visible anyway, so Forrest could only conclude that it was produced by artificial means- and booms were only generally made by civilisations that had at least some form of technological development. Without hesitation he headed in that direction, wary that those continuous explosions either indicated an incredibly un-boring harvest festival or that a war was going on.
He had barely covered one hundred and fifty metres when he heard voices and shouts to his right; he immediately took cover behind a tree stump and directed his view towards the voices. Coming from ahead, he saw a large group of people dressed in primitive clothing hastily moving towards his right, almost as if they were fleeing from the noise. The nature of their shouting and rushed movement conveyed fear- Forrest began to realise that the civilisation up ahead was not going to be welcoming.
Moving out of cover, Forrest stayed low to the ground and moved briskly towards the mass of people, hoping not to be seen as to scare them away. In this he succeeded: emerging from the treeline, he approached the leaders of the fleeing people.
'Excuse me! Hey, you there!' he shouted.
Many faces turned towards him with confused looks until an elderly woman spoke,
'What in the name of the Ancestors are you doing out here stranger, alone?'
The woman paused and walked towards Forrest, struggling to move through the river of bodies that were rushing around her.
'Hurry, child, we must get to the caves. All of us here are fleeing, there is no time-'
'Time for what?' Forrest cut her short.
'The Wraith of course, they are culling the village as we speak! Quickly, they are almost upon us, we hope to find refuge in the caves not far from here.' The old woman had difficulty raising her voice above the continuous cries of 'move!', 'hurry! This way' and 'come on!'.
'The Wraith?' Forrest spoke, 'who the hell are they?'
A startled expression appeared on the woman's face-
'You've never heard of the Wraith? I apologise, but I have never met anyone who has not suffered at the hands of them.'
She seemed genuinely surprised, then said,
'Look child, I wish I could share in your ignorance, but there is no time. Come with us to the caves and I will explain all.'
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Loud, screeching wails resounded above the tree canopy, which agitated and scared the locals even more, even though they had all retreated to the innards of the caves. Forrest was at the mouth of the cave, squatting and leaning behind a rock. He was joined by the old woman and two other, younger, men.
'I make it seventy-two. Is that everyone?' Forrest asked.
'Yes, it should be. I must offer thanks for your assistance, we have never experienced acts of such kindness from outsiders before. Please, meet my sons, Odin and Marcus.'
Forrest smiled and raised his hand, but did not stir from his rock.
'Pleasure to meet you. Now-' he redirected his gaze towards the woman.
'Tell me about these Wraith.'
The old woman proceeded to tell him that they awake to feed every few hundred years or so and that they come in great ships. Suddenly, Forrest was transported back to high school- he recalled learning about a species of alien that fed on the life-force of their victim and played a pivotal role in the demise of the Alterans. Forrest interrupted again as the woman was speaking.
'Hold on. Are these the guys that come in big spaceships and collect humans from villages, so that they can feed on them by sucking the life out of them?'
'Yes, you are quite correct Mr. Forrest.'
She sighed, before continuing to explain their situation.
'Four of their ships came through the portal and started attacking our village and taking people. We had no idea that they were coming, it has not been that long since the last culling. I fear, I fear that we here are the only ones who may survive.'
As she spoke, she noticed that Forrest looked increasingly concerned, and began rubbing his eyeballs with his right fingers.
'Is something wrong?'
'You could say that.' Forrest replied.
'I guess you've just confirmed where I am and how I got here. Its ok though, no need to worry.'
The elderly woman, called Lenova, was just about to ask where exactly Forrest was from when Marcus noticed movement up ahead.
'I see movement' he whispered. His expression dropped like a stone.
'The Wraith are here. I make five of them, heading straight for us.'
Lenova and Odin immediately crouched down and got behind cover. They all simultaneously looked at Forrest, as if expecting answers; meanwhile Forrest's strategic cogs were turning fast. He came up with two options:
Wait until they get close and shoot them.
Wait until they get close and stun them.
'Marcus,' Forrest spoke softly.
'Yes' came the reply.
'If I were to kill these Wraith, what are the chances that more of them will come and hunt us down?'
'Um, high, I mean quite high, yes.'
It did not take a Special Forces veteran to realise that these people were terrified, and the Wraith were almost upon them.
'Stay down' was Forrest's only command, as he drew a pistol from his right-leg holster. Blue pulses of light lanced out at the approaching soldiers as Forrest fired his weapon four times in quick succession, which attracted more blue pulses in his direction as the enemy fired their weapons. The energy blasts dissipated off the rocks and impacted against the walls of the cave, but failed to hit their mark as Forrest was already swat-rolling across the cave entrance. As he reached the other side, he drew a second weapon and began to fire both of them with deadly precision. One of the enemy blasts struck Forrest's chest, but was effortlessly absorbed by his energy shield. Before he could be hit again, the firing stopped. Lenova cautiously peeked her head over her rock, staring in disbelief at the pile of Wraith lying on the ground. She spoke, her voice still trembling with fear.
'Are⦠are they dead?'
'No, they're just stunned; I thought it would be best to do it this way. You two, get over here.'
Forrest signalled to Marcus and Odin. His voice still retained steady calmness, despite what had just happened. To these peasant farmers, he seemed a formidable warrior.
Forrest leant down and picked up the enemy weapons, then handed them to Lenova.
'Here. Take these and give 'em to the most able men you have. You'll need them if my plan goes badly.'
Marcus was confused, so asked Forrest what was on his mind.
'What precisely is your plan Mr. Forrest? What is there to do with a pile of not dead Wraith?'
'I'll explain later. Right now I need you to go and get one more man. We're going to shift our Wraith pals here a short distance, erm, that way.'
Forrest pointed to a small clearing very close to the cave. Within moments, another middle-aged man came running out to meet them.
'You three, take one guy each. We're gonna drag them across the ground to that clearing over there.'
Forrest was quick to issue orders. He looked at each of the men, then sternly said,
'Listen. It is imperative that you follow my orders if you wish to live, OK? Everyone, raise your hand if you want to live.'
The three men looked at each other, each of them quite baffled. Forrest's facial expressions told them that he wanted an answer. With slight hesitation, each man slowly raised his hand. Forrest turned away and faced their objective, grabbing two Wraith by the collar.
'Righto. Follow me.'
When they arrived at the clearing, Forrest told the men to prop the Wraith up in a circle, so to portray the Wraith as conscious and standing up. He told the men to stand behind them, making up the centre part of the circle. They followed without question- Forrest's quite confidence clearly marked himself out as the expert in such matters.
'I can't get this thing to work,' Forrest informed the others. He did not wait for them to ask what exactly the 'thing' was and what he was trying to do with it.
'This device on the Wraiths' arm, it must be used to signal the ship, but unfortunately I can't read ancient alien dialects, so we're gonna wait here and hope that the ship picks us up anyway.'
The three men nodded in unison, although holding these soldiers up was a strenuous task and Forrest could see that the men, especially Odin, were struggling. Thankfully, they would not have to struggle much longer. A screeching wail overhead beckoned the coming of the Wraith ship.
'Not long now, lads. I need you to stay calm and don't move. Hopefully, this'll work.'
Forrest saw a small, pointy plane flying towards them, then a glistening purple ray fire down from the belly of the vessel. Forrest held his arm over the men before activating his shield, which projected over the men but avoided the Wraith. He activated it just before the culling beam hit their group. Forrest crossed his fingers and closed his eyes, praying to whatever gods these people believed in that his shield would protect them.
Sure enough, the beam scooped up the Wraith but dissipated onto the shield-within quite literally a flash, the Wraith were gone, as was the ship.
'What..wha-'
'Don't speak. Or move.'
Forrest's words were clear. He still had the shield activated. Seconds ticked by, each one draining a little more from Forrest's battery reserve. 22%. 21%. 20%. 19%. 18%. Nearly a minute passed before Forrest deactivated the shield, and then sat down on the soft earth. The other men did the same, but they were shocked, nearly out of breath, however Odin managed to collect himself enough to speak.
'Impossible⦠was that your trickery Mr Forrest?'
'Yep. Good job I remembered my history and that Wraith use teleportation beams to get their prey. What you saw was an energy shield which I projected around us, but not the Wraith. It stopped us from being transported up to the ship. Plus, I held it on after so as to blind us from the ship's sensors.'
Forrest spoke slowly, hoping that his explanation would satisfy the men. He noticed that the explosions and the aircraft noise had gone, which could only mean good things. The third man, Cilla, was next to cobble together some words.
'I have never heard of the Wraith being defeated before, not least by one man alone. I'm sure the others will be very happy indeed.'
Back at the caves, Lenova was, naturally, delighted with the news.
'Mr Forrest,' she spoke as she approached him.
'Please, call me James.' Forrest replied with a smile on his face. He truly was glad that he managed to save at least some of these people.
'Very well then, James. On behalf of everyone in Ladonea, you have our sincerest thanks. You are like a gift from the gods, and we owe you a debt of gratitude.'
Hmmm, a gift from the gods. Forrest liked the sound of that, after all he did fall from the heavens.
'Is there anything we can do for you?' Lenova asked politely.
'You know, now that you mention it, there is. Take me to this 'portal' of yours.'
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And just like that, Forrest has his own slice of Wraith pie. I hope you're enjoying this, there's a fair bit more to come. Oh yes: do review!! Please ! :)
