Pleiadian Rescuer Page 6

  The remaining heli’s started bugging out – they’d had enough of this game. The pilots were way out of their depth, and they knew it.

  As soon as he thought it was safe, Archie lay against the dome of the saucer and gathered his thoughts. Fuck, I’ve killed two people! He felt kind of guilty but as the thoughts swam through his mind, he couldn’t help but realise that he’d had no choice. They would have killed him if they’d had the chance. It was them or me – screw those guys, he thought. He turned his mind to shooting the second guy with the rifle; how the fuck did he hit him? He’d never fired a weapon in his life. Looking at the gun, he seemed to know everything about it – even down to its maintenance. Hey, maybe he was a natural or more likely, he’d seen too many war films.

  Climbing to his feet, he pushed all those thoughts aside as he made his way over to the dead soldier. He searched the now still man and took anything that could have been of use. Without even thinking about it, he ejected the magazine from the rifle and replaced it with a fresh one. Grabbing the pistol, he did the same thing. He then stuffed as much spare ammo as he could fit into the pockets on the side of his trousers and started making his way back to the hatch. While he was walking, he realised that he knew exactly what he was doing when it came to the firearms, but he didn’t have a clue as to how or why.

  Looking up it was clear that things weren’t over as the Arrowheads and the Lightship were still duking it out. As he got to the hatch, Archie decided to leave the now strapless rifle in the boat. He felt like it would be more of a hindrance rather than an asset. After all, he had only fired the thing once, and as far as he was concerned, he’d got lucky hitting the target. He tucked the pistol into the front of his trousers and decided that he would probably always opt to use the knife as his first choice of weapon. With that, he had experience and was more than competent with it.

  5

  Inside The Crashed Alien Ship

  Fishing Lake

  West Midlands, England

  The inside was absolutely massive, far larger than it looked from the outside. Peering down the corridor, Archie noticed the way was extremely dark. In fact, the only area that was actually illuminated was the immediate vicinity in which he was standing. Turning on his head torch, he nervously stepped forward, and as his foot touched the floor, the lighting followed his movement through the walls. Slowly, he took another step, this time there were sparks as the light tried to follow. Jumping back to his original position, he realised that the ship's power was shorting out and there was an acrid smell of burning electrics as smoke began filling the air.

  It was evident that there wasn’t much time before either the ship caught fire, or it sank beneath the water. The thought made Archie nervous, but it also made him realise that he had to get a move on. If there were anyone on board, they would surely die if he did nothing. He took another step forward, this time there was only light, no sparks. He took another, and another with the same result… light. Slowly, he made his way forward through the corridor and after about ten paces, the thought reoccurred to him that he could be saving hostile Beings. It ran through his mind that the helicopters and fighter jets did attack the other ships of the same design as this one, but then again, the human forces had attempted to kill him as well.

  Pulling his fish knife from its sheath, he thought Fuck it – I’ll deal with any hostile intent if and when it appeared – but I’ve gotta check this out, they might be friendly. After all, they had plenty of opportunities to attack him over the past two nights, but all they did was dance their ships around the sky, which he was sure they had done for his benefit. He was the only person on the fishing lake, which was in the middle of nowhere, not a town or village for around twenty miles in any direction. So, the appearance of the Lightships could only have been for him to see. It was as though they were saying “We’re Here”. But even with that thought process, Archie would be taking no chances. If he had to start wind-milling, he’d be doing it with a blade in his hand, intent on doing as much damage as possible before getting the hell out of there.

  Moving on, the noise of the ships electrics shorting out was still going on somewhere, but at least the lights were still working. After what felt like fifty feet into the craft, Archie came to a door on the right. This seemed to be where the crackle and pops of the electrical system were coming from, and there was an intermittent flashing of blue light. Psyching himself up to enter the room, he wondered what he would find inside. With his mind racing, visions of the typical pop culture “Grey” alien were prominent, although he did have a flash of Klingon go through his head. How would they react to him? Would they attack him? Would his martial arts be any match for them? Hell, were they even alive?

  Upon entering the room, he found nothing, it was empty. There were no aliens, no bodies, nothing. The noises were definitely originating from this room, and the flashing light was actually coming from the walls, but there were no light fittings as such. In fact, at that moment he realised that he hadn’t actually seen a proper light source since entering the ship. Clearly, there was light, but it seemed to emanate directly from the walls and the ceiling, though he couldn’t see any bulbs or anything that could remotely be described as conventional light sources.

  Leaving the room, Archie resumed his search back down the corridor. This place was massive, there seemed to be no end to this hallway. Eventually, he came to another doorway, this time on the left. Confused, he couldn’t figure out how there could even be a door or room on that side of the hall. Going by human understanding of spatial awareness, there shouldn’t be a room on that side at all. The ship was saucer-shaped, and he had entered the craft through a hatch on the left side of the vessel and turned immediately left into the corridor, which he assumed would run around the circumference of the entire craft and that meant that through our understanding, the only place for compartments should be on the right-hand side of the hall. It just didn’t make any sense. Archie had to put it out of his mind and get a move on as he felt the craft lurch.

  Psyching himself up again, he moved into the room, which was extremely dark. The only light came from his head torch. Scanning around, he saw a bank of crystals and loose wires all over the place. The compartment was hot – really hot. It felt like his head was burning, but he couldn’t figure out why. After about ten seconds he realised his hat was alight. Tearing it from his head, he threw it to the floor and stamped out the flames. Looking up, he noticed a bunch of wires hanging down from a hole in the ceiling and like a fool, he must have snagged the hat on one and set himself alight. Cursing, he left the room and carried on down the hallway, very quickly approaching another door on the right. He hoped that this room was the one he was looking for. He was getting seriously concerned about safety; the vibrations and rumbles made it painfully clear that the ship was becoming more unstable by the minute.

  Moving inside, he had to shield his eyes. This was by far the brightest room he had been in. The light was so bright it hurt. So much so, that he had to wait for his eyes to adjust before he could do anything. It was like walking out of a pitch-black room into bright sunlight. Moving around the outside of the room, he realised how big this place was. He found what appeared to be four double beds. He was feeling more than seeing, the room was that bright. By the time he had found the fourth bed, Archie’s vision had adjusted enough for relatively normal vision. From the edge of the room, he looked inward, there was a table, several large chairs, and what looked like cups or drinking containers, but that was it - no aliens and no bodies. He was beginning to think he might be wasting his time as he moved back into the dullness of the hallway, where again, he had to wait for his eyes to readjust.

  The electrical issues worsened as he made his way down the corridor, and the farther he went, the more the light seemed to dim. After a short time, he apparently found the end of the hall as he approached the last door. How was this possible? The ship didn’t seem big enough for this kind of layout. He looked back up the corridor to c
onfirm his suspicions – the hall was straight. What was going on here?

  The smoke was getting worse, time was a critical factor, he had to crack on with the job. As he was about to enter the last room, there was a loud rumble, and the vessel seemed to vibrate and shift worse than it had previously. Fuck, is it sinking into the lake? He had to pick up the pace, or he was going to find himself neck deep in shit. Quickly, he moved into the last room… Gotcha! There were four wrap-around chairs or couches with what looked like normal human beings sat in them. He was shocked, he didn’t see that coming. He’d expected to find some type of alien.

  Switch on you dickhead! He needed to get a grip of himself as he made his way to the chairs. There he found what appeared to be a normal, blonde haired human man. Going through the primary survey, it was apparent that this one was dead, so he moved on to the next chair… again, dead.

  BOOM! There was a massive explosion, and a significant shift rocked through the ship.

  Looking around, Archie noticed approximately eight, maybe ten view screens moulded into the wall. He didn’t know what the explosion or what the shift was, but he could see through the displays that the ship was still on the surface of the lake. However, it was listing badly. It was time to really get a move on.

  The third person was actually alive, albeit unconscious. After making sure the casualty had a secure airway, Archie moved straight on to the fourth man. The brain matter hanging out of the massive hole in the right side of his head meant that this casualty was number three on the dead scale; One - DEAD, Two - PROPER DEAD, and Three - FUCKING DEAD!

  Two loud explosions ripped through the vessel, announcing that it was time to get out of there.

  Moving back to the only one of the four… men, that was still alive, it dawned on him how big the survivor was. He was like the proverbial man mountain. At least six-foot-tall, and well built, which meant he had to weigh about 17, maybe 18 stone. Archie was only five foot eight and a fit 13 stone. He knew this was going to be a monumental lift, but fuck it, he had to try. He couldn’t in good conscience leave him to die. Looking at the casualty, memories of life on the ambulance service came flooding back as he muttered to himself “Why do I always end up with the big fucker?”

  Pulling the big man forward to get into a position to lift him, he started to groan, prompting Archie to lay him back into the chair, where he began trying to wake him using both verbal and pain stimuli. Well, trying was the right word to use, would standard pain stimuli actually hurt a giant like the one he had in front of him? After several seconds the man seemed to start coming round. Great, hopefully, he can walk out of here.

  “Wake up!” Archie said, nearly shouting as he slapped the casualty’s face, “Wake up. Open your eyes, mate, come on wakey fucking wakey.”

  Getting no further response other than the same groaning, Archie thought that he was probably wasting his time trying to talk to him. After all, would he even understand English? Was he even human? Just because he appeared to be a man, didn’t make it so. Putting that out of his mind, he knew he had to get moving as the angle of the deck started to change. He pulled the casualty forward again and got him into a position on his shoulders and braced his self for the inevitable weight that he was about to lift. Taking a deep breath, he pushed up hard with his legs, but as he did so, he nearly threw the injured man against the ceiling. He weighed next to nothing. Archie had held fish that weighed more. Feeling like the world’s strongest man, he assumed it must be the adrenalin running through his system that was making him stronger. He’d read and heard many stories of people achieving superhuman feats in times of emergency.

  Moving back into the hallway, Archie immediately saw the smoke had gotten considerably worse, and his eyes started to sting straight away. His throat had become thick as he began to choke on the particulates in the air. He had to get out of this shit before they both died of smoke inhalation. Hunching over, he managed to get as close to the floor as possible and started a crouched run back up the corridor as fast as he could. The big blonde backpack started choking and vomiting almost straight away, and Archie knew that he had to get lower or the man would be dead before they got to the hatch. Lowering himself further, he found himself on his hands and knees as he half carried, half dragged the unconscious casualty toward the exit by crawling as fast as he could.

  He had been moving for a minute or so when three massive explosions erupted from somewhere behind him. Fuck this – if I stay on my knees we’re dead, he thought as he stood back up and started running. Every few steps, he dropped his head below the smoke layer to gulp some air. On the way into the ship, Archie had been confused about the layout of the craft, with the corridor being so straight and long for what, on the outside, was such a small ship. But right now, he couldn’t have been more grateful because it meant he had only one direction in which he had to run.

  As he moved forward, he noticed a terrible sound; a cracking noise. The lighting was gone entirely, and the smoke was awful. He found himself feeling more than seeing his way, but when his head torch did occasionally penetrate the gloom, what he saw horrified him. The walls were seemingly being stretched to the extent that gaping holes were being ripped through them. At the same time, he realised that the load on his back was getting heavier and heavier the closer he got to the hatch and freedom beyond.

  After what felt like an age, Archie felt a doorway to his right, which meant he was making progress. The ship was now listing severely, so much so that he had to run uphill. His lungs were burning, and every muscle in his body was on fire as the demand for oxygen increased continuously.

  Boom!

  This explosion felt different, and it was followed almost instantly by another noise. It took a few seconds for Archie to realise what it was, and another few seconds to come to terms with just how much shit he was in as the sound of rushing water got worse. The angle at which he was running seemed to get more dramatic, and the man on his back got significantly heavier. Something had changed. He realised that it couldn’t have been adrenalin that made it so easy to pick up his casualty because the surge of adrenalin he now had was by far stronger because he knew the ship was sinking, yet the weight on his back was getting worse.

  With panic well and truly setting in, Archie reached his right arm over his shoulder to hold on to the unconscious man, leaned forward and started running with his left hand feeling the left wall as he ran. He was desperately trying to find the door that he knew would be coming up on the left. From there, he knew he only had about fifty feet to go. Archie kept his hand on the wall as he moved, he was feeling his way until his hand disappeared through an opening. He instantly had a surge of hope run through him until he realised that the sides of the doorway were serrated. This wasn’t the door he was looking for. This was one of the holes he’d seen being ripped through the ship's structure back down the corridor.

  The sound of water was getting louder and louder, exacerbating the panic Archie was feeling. He could hear someone shouting, “KEEP GOING, KEEP GOING, DON’T STOP!” For a second, he thought that Blondie was awake and could get off of his back and get out of the ship under his own steam, it took a moment before he realised that the shouting was actually in his head. He pushed forward using every ounce of strength and determination he had.

  Finally, the smoke seemed to clear enough for him to see the hatch about ten feet in front of him. He must have missed the doorway to the left of the corridor entirely during his rush for freedom. Reaching the opening, he bundled the unconscious form of the blond giant through and climbed out after him.

  As soon as he was outside, he started searching for the boat, quickly realising that the lip of the ship had risen about ten feet from the surface of the water as the other side sank. The small craft had started to drift away; it was now roughly ten, maybe fifteen feet away. So much for the shitty anchor. He knew what he had to do, although it didn’t make the decision any more natural. He really didn’t want to do it but jumping into the lake was t
he only option. The temperature of the water was the main concern for himself, but his real worry was that if he dropped the unconscious casualty in from this height, there was every chance that he’d go under and never come up again. As the thoughts raced through his mind, Archie knew it was all irrelevant, there was no other way to get off the sinking ship.

  “Fuck it, here goes nothing,” he grunted to himself as he heaved the dead weight of the unconscious survivor over the side. He waited a few seconds to see where the unconscious form would resurface and mentally noting the position before taking the plunge into the icy soup himself. As Archie broke the surface, he immediately started swimming to the face-down Blondie.

  There was a terrible sound and light show as the ship finally lost the battle to stay afloat and started going beneath the surface. As it went down, it seemed as though it was imploding, folding in on itself. It looked like it was inside an invisible car crusher. Eventually, it went down in an area that Archie knew was roughly fifty feet deep – not deep enough to exert the kind of pressure to crush a vehicle. He had no time to dwell on it, he had to get to Blondie and get out of the water before they both succumbed to hypothermia.

  After turning the hulking form on to his back, Archie got behind him, put his left arm over the casualty’s left shoulder and grabbed him under the right armpit, as though he was a lifeguard. He swam backwards in the direction of the boat. He was absolutely shattered and started to really struggle with the exertion of it all. Both of them kept going under the water as he tried hard to stay afloat. Getting to the boat, he realised that there was no way he could get himself inside, let alone lift the dead weight of the giant. The only way forward was to stay in the water and use the boat as a float, that way he’d have the leverage to keep both of their heads above the waterline. As he started to swim while trying to push the boat, he realised that the brick anchor was preventing the small vessel from moving. It must have dislodged from the hatch as that side of the ship started to rise out of the water, now it was stuck fast on the bottom of the lake. Temporarily, Archie let go of the big man and pulled his knife from its holster to cut the rope attached to the brick. When he’d finished, he thought about just dropping the blade in the water but decided against it. So far that knife had been a godsend, an invaluable bit of kit. No, he wasn’t going to just bin it now. Surprisingly, he managed to re-holster it on the first attempt. Grabbing hold of Blondie and the now free boat, he started kicking hard for the bay.