2
Franck flew over to where Lt. Roland was barking orders.
"Sir," he saluted, "Any idea how we're gonna get out of this place?"
Roland turned towards him. "Non," he said, "But the dieu Fleesh would have a way." He turned back to the other bats.
Franck looked down at his belt. He had a few sharp sticks and metal shards. Hoe they were supposed to defeat the humans was unknown. They had taken metal from them and made helmets and spears. They had also stolen a special human object that could display body heat of any living thing. Somehow, an engineer managed to hook it up to all the helmets of the regiment. Now, they could all see with feature, making it easier to spot where someone was, but it also made things confusing, with all the assortments of color. Franck raised his visor. The colors were giving him a headache.
Suddenly, the room started rumbling. Several bats fell on their backs.
The voice of God filled the room. "Prepare to live again!"
The room seemed to move upward at an amazing speed. Everyone was pushed onto the floor by the momentum. They had been underground. There was a loud crash and they had returned to the surface. The roof of the room disappeared. Outside was the clear blue sky. Franck breathed in fresh air.
Dusk fell back as the room went upwards. He could feel the speed. The room broke the surface and the ceiling disappeared. Dusk looked at the sky he had not seen in millions of years. He looked at the nature and was shocked. The world was nothing like he had ever seen. All the plants were different and the ground was different. The air was different and the smell was too. Several of the chiropters were exclaiming about the view.
Dusk found his squad's Lieutenant, a chiropter named Tark.
"Sir," he said, "What do we do now?"
"I don't know," Lt. Tark said quietly, shocked by what he was seeing.
Dusk noticed that around the open room they were in, were several other of the same rooms, but they were filled with bats, not chiropters, but bats. Dusk was a bat, not a chiropter like the rest of his regiment. Many considered him a freak of nature, but after many encounters with other bats, he knew he wasn't alone. Dusk put on his helmet. It had two upward angles scratched on it, designating him as a Corporal. He left the straps loose. If he ties the straps, he would have trouble breathing.
"Spread out," ordered Shadow.
"My squad, form up," said Lt. Tark.
Dusk and a few chiropters followed Tark away from the main group.
"Look for a sign for what to do. The God wouldn't just dump us here," said one of the chiropters, a Corporal named Indar.
Suddenly, he heard a familiar humming sound. It got louder and louder until it became a whirring sound. Then he saw it. It was an immense black thing. Dusk didn't know what it was. Judged by the looks of the others, they didn't know either. But dusk had seen them before. It was rectangular and long. On top were spinning blades that spun so fast they became a circular blur. It had white marks on the side, but Dusk didn't what they meant. The front and side of the thing had clear spots and Dusk could see inside. There was a bat in the front. The inside was almost the same as the inside of the object that had crashed in the forest millions of years ago. The side of the thing popped out slightly and slid to the side, revealing a hole into the whatever-it-was. The bat that was in the front stepped to the opening. On his head was a helmet like the ones Dusk saw on the dead bats a long time ago when the larger thing crashed in the forest. On the side of the helmet was a gold upwards arrow. The sign of a Private. But what was with the color? Dusk knew that he would not understand a lot of things in this new world.
"Lieutenant," said the bat to Tark. The bat brought his claws to his head to salute.
"Private Bud Silverwing, Air Regiment," he introduced himself. He looked at the chiropters. "Tree Bark, I presume?"
"That's right, Private," Tark said hesitantly.
"Get in," said Bud, gesturing into the thing.
"What is that, exactly?" asked Tark.
"Oh, this? This is a helicopter. A human vehicle. Well, not a human one, but one designed by Fleesh, the God. This is Rotor-10."
Dusk flew into the helicopter. He had not understood the terms "helicopter" and "human vehicle," but he figured he would find out. There were easily a hundred seats in the helicopter. There were about five levels. Inside, it was dark, but luminous glowing panels on the ceiling provided light.
Dusk felt the helicopter moving. It felt like flying, except something else was doing it for him.
Bud's voice came from somewhere on the ceiling. It sounded like the voices that came from the small black objects that Dusk had found on the dead Warriors of the Gods. "We're going to pick up the rest of your kompanie."
"What?" Tark shouted over the sound of the helicopter.
"I said, we're gonna pick up the rest of your regiment."
Dusk looked out of the clear hole on the side of the helicopter. He saw drifting clouds and the tops of the trees. He also saw the unbelievable. There were long straight stretches of black and gray lines going across the endless land. There were bunches of strange, rectangular things. Dusk didn't know what other word to use for all the strange things he had seen. The things were huge. Behind each thing was a small field. Some had other smaller things in the field.
"What are those?" he asked.
"Those are häuser. Houses. The humans live in them."
"What are humans?"
"Sie sind eine art von tier."
"What?"
"They are beasts! Like you and me, just a different species."
"What's with all those weird words you just said?" asked one of the other chiropter, a small fast chiropter known as Private Hujaska.
"Es ist Deutsch!" Bud said, irritated, "Ruhig sein!"
"What?" asked Hujaska.
"SHUT UP!"