Chapter 15
A world unknown
Adam opened his eyes only to behold darkness, he didn't know if his eyes were still closed or if they couldn't open at all. He struggled to open his eyes, but to no avail. Fear gripped at his heart as a horrible revelation dawned upon him, what if I can't open my eyes again. He blindly looked up to where he believed the sky was, however, he could see white, icy dots, millions…no billions and billions of flashing dots. So why hadn't he been able to see anything else. He instinctively reached towards his face and brushed the tips of his fingers against his eye lashes, which were lifted in an upward position. His eyes were open after all.
It must be night, he thought, but where am I? He slowly rolled over and pushed with his arms until he was crouched on the ground, then with a strong heave he lifted off the earth and stood, his joints popping as he stood and stretched. As his irises adjusted to the darkness he could distinctly make out mounds of profound shadows that surrounded him, most reaching into the heavens until they disappeared with distance. Adam inched forward often bumping into the imperfections that covered the soil beneath his armored feet.
His mail armor and plates of metal that covered his body was still intact and continuously clinked and clanked with every step he took. "Okay, I can't take much more of this constant darkness." He told himself, "Vremlox elvrpo."
A spark flashed in front of him and a ball of fire expanded from the vestige, pulsing with brightening streaks of golden flame. The blaze illuminated the area with flickering light, causing the shadows to dance across the, what were once shadows, mounds of rubble, large metal chunks, and other rubbish. The metal was dull and rusted and was welded into designs unfamiliar to him. They formed intricate shapes with wire-like patterns that coated them with swirling bands, visible by close inspection. The metal itself was grainy, despite the dirt and rust that formed an unattractive layer of skin on the steel.
Some shapes were easily depicted, while others were a combination of shapes, like a group of cubes, spheres, triangles, and cylinders. Some even looked like some sort of vehicle, with a glass shield that protected what looked like a cockpit. A seat, which was once leather, occupied the cockpit, its wired frame covered in small amounts of decomposing material.
Where am I? He asked himself touching the still smooth glass of the cockpit. Weird as it was, he thought it seemed oddly familiar, like all this came from a dream he had long ago, in his youthful years. He continued walking through the labyrinth of mountains of rubble and steel, often stopping to admire the metallic structures that made up most of the 'graveyard'. As he progressed he heard a rumble like thunder in the distance, it was so feint he could have imagined it. Gradually the rumbling became more distinct; Adam looked to the sky for any hint of storm clouds. The sky was still black with no indications of storm clouds.
The rumbling grew louder and louder, very quickly he saw small flashes of light streak across the sky, not lightning for the flashes were blotches of light and not zigzagged lines of heat. Suddenly a loud, painful roar echoed across the maze he stood in as a bright light illuminated the area with a fiery blaze. Within a few seconds a large shape plummeted out of the clouds hanging in the sky, trailing behind it a long line of fire. As it neared the ground it reared upward and flew horizontal, parallel with the ground, towards Adam.
He stood frozen in fear as the shape streaked the mounds of rubble with a fiery light that cast ghastly shadows that danced until the light passed by. As the shape approached him he threw himself against a wall of metal and stuck his head between his legs and held his body in time for the shape which bolted overhead, the flames searing Adam's bare skin, and disappeared behind a dune of debris. When the metallic build rushed past it extinguished the ball of fire that floated above Adam's head. Soon afterward a loud crash emitted from the impact zone, nothing more than a red glow in the distance, and the ground shook with a powerful quake, threatening to tear apart.
Adam's heart pounded at an alarming rate, pumping blood with incredible speed. As adrenaline filled his limbs he stood and ran towards the crashed vessel. After hopping over a large brick and sliding past several beams he reached a large crater, the cup-shaped depression was streaked with blast marks and small pockets of flame which burned with ardent intensity.
The ship was in the shape of a V with four equally spaced wings that, if looked at from the front, formed an X, though one seemed to have been ripped off during the crash, for there was smoke billowing from the spot the wing would have been. The ships center, and central cockpit, was evenly placed between the origin points of each wing, with a pointed cone on the nose of the ship. The cockpit had two strips of metal that divided it in three sections, spaced enough for three occupants. The ship was a beautiful structure, not counting the fact that half of it was wedged in the firm dirt, and the other half dented and scratched with large tears in the alloy.
Adam reached the ship while avoiding the springing fires, and peered inside a glass pane that covered the back of the ship. It was milky and cold, but otherwise clear, inside was a control panel with various, flickering lights, several wires that glowed with a blue haze, and…
A body…
The body wore some sort of metal armor, with circular lights that dotted areas like the chest, shoulders, and legs. The armor was made of an incredibly strong material bolstered by a force field. The man shifted slightly, moving across the floor of the ship, knocking over a loose beam, which rolled across the cockpit and smashed into a vertical computer screen. Adam nervously searched for an aperture in the glass windshield that served as a barrier for the cockpit.
Seeing none he reached down, keeping his eyes on the armored body, and brushed the ground with his hands for any object that he could use to break the glass. After grasping a rough, jagged item he reared back and smashed the glass with the exhaust pipe he grabbed. The window shattered into thousands of pieces that flew through the air, piercing Adam's uncovered skin. With the sharp, ear-piercing ringing echoing throughout the battered ship he squeezed into the tight hole that was, just seconds ago, a window.
Reaching as far as he could he clutched a chink in the armored articulation of the man's foot and , pulling as hard as he could, extracted the man from his initial position. Suddenly something popped in his shoulder, causing him to scream in pain. He dropped the man's foot with a hallow bang and grasped his shoulder.
"Les Vestai." He grunted, and immediately felt his energy drain from his body as the spell took effect, repairing whatever ligaments had popped. His skin crawled and his tendons moved back into place within several seconds.
He experimented different positions with his shoulder to verify that it had healed correctly. As he stretched he heard something move inside the cockpit. His head instinctively whipped towards the noise to see the armored man crawling out of the window, excess glass falling to the ground as the man disturbed their restful spot on the window frame.
The man's helmet had small eye slits that glowed bright blue. The mask was flawlessly made with smooth bends, folds and creases that formed the helms features. "Help…me." The man asked, and as he did a small band on the area his mouth should be, lit up the same blue as his eyes.
Adam shot forward and pulled the man the rest of the way and gently lowered him to the ground.
The man looked up to Adam and tilted his head. "Did they come yet?" The man's voice was full of worry and fear that it seemed to clog all meaning of life from the man. Adam arched an eyebrow and asked, "Who? What do you mean?" The man shook his head and stood, and just as fast, fell as his weak legs buckled. Adam reached out and caught him before he hit the ground.
"I'm Gavin. Thanks for saving me." The man reached up and with his hand, grasped two opposite sided indentions in his mask and pulled it free from its grip, revealing his face. He had a light colored completion with an angular nose and skinny eyebrows. Chiseled shadows accompanied scars on his face. Adam replied with his name.
Gavin stared around at his surroundings then up to the sky "Oh no! Here they come!"
Adam reared backward and stared towards the spot the man's shacking figure pointed out. A dark shape broke through the profound clouds in the sky and caused the clouds underside to illuminate with an orange glow, giving the vapors an evil look. The shape covered the distance between them in seconds and, at the last minute, swirled overhead and hovered over the crash site, large cylinder-shaped pieces revolving and twisting in order to stay in the air. The ship emitted a low hum as the pieces clinked and clanked together, it was easily fifty yards long and twenty to thirty feet tall.
The man grabbed Adam's arm and pulled him down next to him. "They will kill us without a moment's hesitation."
Adam looked to the ship which was now landing amid the destroyed crash site. "Then we should be the same."
The man laughed a short painful laugh as memories flooded into his mind. "They are way more advance than you give them credit for."
Adam didn't know what to say, and when he remained quiet Gavin shrugged and crept towards a pile of rubble, concealing himself from the view of the attackers. The ship had landed and a service door opened up, letting another armored man exit. He too welded a rectangular object that Adam couldn't make out. The man looked over the crash site, his mask's glowing eyes inspecting every little detail.
Gavin looked back to Adam and whispered, "Be careful. They are extremely strong and unimaginably wise; they can predict your every move."
Not every move. Adam thought, already formulating a plan.
The man stepped off the onramp that was connected to the service entryway. The burning dirt crackled under his foot. Suddenly another man joined the other on the ground. Together they walked the perimeter of the site looking through and behind piles of rubble. When they were just inches from Gavin, he jumped up and shot several bright glowing beams that, when landing on their target, exploded with a sizzling sound. The first armored man fell, half his body dissolving into smoke. The other jumped and rolled back up, taking aim at Gavin, who ducked back down and reloaded his weapon while the other man shot the rubble guarding him.
Adam felt the need to help, but didn't know what he could do while he was defenseless. The other man ducked behind the wing of the crashed ship and reloaded, Gavin jumped up and opened fire, blasting large, smoking holes in the wing. The field echoed with ringing shots and flashed with a constant haze as the beams exploded.
As the two men battled, Adam could see three more running down the onramp on the opposite side of the crater. "Um…Onolv." Suddenly a massive amount of energy drained from Adam's body as the spell instantly killed one of the three men approaching him. With a solid thump the man fell to the ground. The other two looked at their fallen comrade, no doubt with surprised expressions. Then they held up their weapons and looked all around the area.
Uhg… that took a lot of energy from me, I have to stick with smaller spells. Adam thought as a headache pounded on his skull with unrelenting force that began to drive him insane. "Vremlox limnai boshg levnuc beaux." He said, sounding out each word carefully. A small pocket of flame next to him brightened and lifted up, liquid fire dripping onto the ground, causing new conflagrations to spring into existence which also lifted into the air.
Then with a flash of light and speed the balls of fire shot across the crater, followed by trails of white smoke, and exploded with tremendous force at the feet of the two men, heating their armor intensely. The men were flung backward, burning as the fire spread onto their bodies. Gavin ran up to him, seeming not to have noticed the other two men burning in charring embers.
"They are retreating." He said as the depression blasted with a force of air, the ship lifted off the earth, the large engines revolving and the service door lowering back into place.
"Not for long!" Adam ran towards the ship and shouted, "Mattai beaux levnuc xif!" He held his palm towards the ship that began to fly away, but not fast enough for Adam's hand emitted a resplendence golden light that pulsed into a ball of pure energy that caused the wind to whirl and howl as it increased in speed. Just as the ship's engines ejected pressurized gas and started to move, the glowing ball in Adam's palm shot over the crater and blasted a hole large enough to fit three elephants into the ship's side, huge chunks of metal propelled by the explosion, streaked across the area, a ear piercing screech entered the atmosphere as the ship vibrated with smaller explosions. Debris rained down upon them as the ship spun in circles, descending rapidly and, with a final explosion, shattered into millions of pieces as detritus plummeted towards the ground, smoke and fire littering the earth.