Aliena Numina Book 2

5 - Ice Age

                                                                                                                                                                                                  

“Nooooo!”     

My voice trembled in that world for the last time. The teleportation was not yet complete when the massive projectiles passed through the ship. One of them exploded on the metallic big wall in the back as soon as the teleportation was over.

A red flame began to spread like burning oil tankers. There was a terrible turmoil as the flames raged exponentially. Even when it was still away, I felt its flames on my face. Then there was a bigger explosion, and as it grew rapidly, we beamed out with our seats attached as an automatic safety protocol. All I heard at the time was the moaning from Xhero and Nava. And then it was like everything was interrupted for a moment.

The bewilderment and fear began to engulf us and lead us towards a chaos. The sky seemed to be in the middle of a red and white apocalypse. On the one hand, the big snowflakes fell, and on the other hand, the giant ships were hunting each other. The flames that crossed the sky from head to toe were as if they were rocks of fire emanating from a volcano. There was also bloodshed like rain in the blurry view. It touched my face and gave me the smell of rust.

Apocalyptic shouts, giant engine noises and the noise of mechanical weapons were everywhere. The sound of the roaring wind was crying like the breath of a grieving woman. I could taste the fear, the hate and the cruelty in its breath. Even though the snowflakes that touched my face and melted there made me conscious, everything happened in seconds, and an endless sea of bewilderment began to suffocate me.

ZenaSer-Hewa was malfunctioned in the air. A small ship flew towards it at speed, and that's when I saw two men moving incredibly fast. Within seconds, they were flying in.            

Asino was shooting at his ship with expressions of anger and compassion. His eyes looked like they were going to pop out of their sockets. It was like he was killing the person who betrayed him. But on the other hand, it seemed like it was all he had. The contradiction and dilemma led to something new and incomprehensible about him.

Xwa and Layap were trying to save the element. Nava and Xhero were unconscious and their faces were burned.

Under the snow, my visibility was constantly blurring. We were just hanging in the seats, floating in the air. We were like prisoners held in the air. Suddenly I saw two more ships approaching us. The air was covered with a terrible tremor, causing everything to shake as if there was a second heart next to the human heart. The blood quickly pumped into my veins, creating high pressure. The sea of fear was in the storm.

My eyes found Marcus. Xwa and Layap were two scientists who didn't understand anything about war. But Marcus had experience as if he'd actually been through it all. He was directing them and trying to save the element. But it was absolutely impossible.

I screamed and called Nina. My eyes were looking for her, but couldn't find her anywhere. I had a real fear that was ready to kill me. I could feel its indescribable and violent touch. It was like a sharp knife grazing my face.

"Ed! I'm here!" She shouted. I looked back quickly. Her eyes were full of fear.

"Ed, are you all right?" She shouted in the same tone. The last thing I saw was my head nodding to her in a yes. A large piece of metal hit me the head and everything darkened. Then the voices hung where they were. My movements matched in absolute captivity.

"Ed, are you all right?" She repeated.

No.      

"No!" I shouted. My voice covered the entire area.

"You caused this!" Shouted a woman.

"No!" I shouted back.

"You caused this!" She said again. Nina's red and warm blood was pouring out of her mouth. The freezing gaze in her eyes made me feel the cold breezes of death and as if she had dropped a stone weighing tons of weight into my heart.

"No!" I didn't know what my objection was for. The bloodshed behind was rising rapidly. The woman left Nina and accelerated towards me. As Nina froze like a statue, the woman and I were floating like ghosts.

I could feel her cold voice on my neck but trying to escape her at the same time. I was angry and scared. My heart wasn't beating. I didn't have any other thoughts. Everything was frozen, and I was moving like a bird over rivers of blood. There was no time. It was like that concept had already disappeared. We were the only ones moving all over the world. It was a sky full of stillness.

She just stood in front of me. By then, it was all over. She was standing right in front of me. A man appeared. He had the same qualities as me. It was like my image in the mirror. It looked like me in a terrible way. But we were separated. I knew it was a piece of me, but it was also something else. There was animosity in the way he looked at me with anger.

The woman stood right behind me this time.

"It's over, Ed." She said. She knew me. The man who looked at me hostilely was the same as me, and he turned me upside down. That wild woman just bit Nina, and now there was a man looking at me in anger. That was true. It was all over.

"Ed," said a voice. It folded that woman's voice twice in a row. But the second voice was from Nina. The feelings started to come back.     

"Nina!" I said with joy.

"Ed wake up!" She said in an agitated voice. My eyes opened up fast. I had blood on my face. It was snowing violently and Nina's hands were covered in blood. A large bullet passed right by her head, buzzing. But she didn't care. The beats of my heart drove me crazy. Everything just started coming back. I had fainted, and I had seen that woman again.

"Hurry!" I shouted. "Hurry!"

The men on board should have taken the elements and left. The two ships approaching us were no longer present, but larger machines were moving and flaying by shaking the air like earthquakes.

Kate flew on her way to us fast. I was really confused by these seats that could fly like small ships. Marcus had gathered the rest of them together. No one had any idea what to do. We were caught between two fires. Bullets from the fire, which split the air, increased the danger at any moment. Xhero was injured and Nava was still unconscious. A lot of Asino's men were gone. There were only a handful people from the crew left. But that's not what put him down. The element was gone. His ship was gone. Now it was a giant flame burning in the sky.

Asino did something with the remote in his hand, and we started going down fast. Up there, when the machines closed the gap, the vertical distance between us was getting bigger and bigger. Everything turned upside down, and it was like time was going wrong. Everyone had hope for something once, and now it was gone. Maybe the rivers were really going to bleed. That was horrible. We were coming down fast. This time from below, it was like snowflakes rising in the opposite direction to the sky, melting in my face and trying to get me out of it.

"Why are they fighting so closely?" asked Marcus, shouting. That was crazy. We were flying to our deaths, and Marcus was asking why they were fighting like this, not why they were fighting.

"Ships are made to be distanced from each other" Layap shouted. "So, no one can shoot anyone from a distance. That's what it's for."

That's when I knew. Marcus had a purpose in every move. By doing so, he had diverted Layap and Xwa's attention and made them come up with a new idea.

"One and a half Bejna to the ground…" a voice said. It came out of all the seats at the same time.

"We're going to crash in 240 meters!" shouted Roder. Asino tried to reconnect them with the remote control, but it didn't work. We kept falling. Suddenly I remembered Frai.

"Can your ship still fly, Asino?" I shouted.

"Yes, but it is a good as dead!" He sounded sad again. We were still falling. I didn't know the real reason for this sadness.

"There..." I screamed. "It has our Frai in that we can use."

The noise above was gradually being replaced by the silence of death. The seats were gaining momentum and were starting to fall free. The altitude we had at the same level was changing. Some were falling faster.

"It's a trap!" shouted Xwa suddenly. "They're waiting for us to land. That's why it's so quiet."

"15 Drejai left to the ground," the same said.

"96 meters!" said Roder. It seemed he had given up hope. Esme was struggling with the pain of thinking about who she could save. Nina, on the contrary, was still in the same calmness. Life would be over in meters.

From above, pieces of metal and glass were falling freely. Asino did something fast, and his ship appeared right below us. We hit the top, which was like a junkyard. The greenery of the botanical garden was engulfed in flames and snow. But Asino didn't care. Suddenly he did something and a bluish light swallowed Kate.

We were just relieved when other vehicles appeared approaching from a distance. The apocalypse was still ongoing.

"We're done!" Layap said in a desperate voice. "These are sniper units. They're going to spot us and make other weapons from the ground find us."

As fear nails our heels to the ground, a giant defense system that grows within us comes into play. Meanwhile, the brain miraculously processes and begins to find new alternatives. Man has never been a missing being. It can't be. He always finds a way. Hope hides until the last moment and appears surprisingly. Whoever loses it, loses everything.

When Kate appeared with Frai, I saw that hope. The glint of victory in her eyes was as bright as daylight. Both of Frai's doors rose like tents, and they became shields.         

"Get in quickly!" She shouted. Her voice was full of the same expression. Marcus pushed Esme and Roder forward. Me and Nina went right after them. The remaining seats started to fall one by one. Asino pushed Nava and Xhero in. Their bodies were left there like dead. Xwa jumped right in and started pulling them in. There were only four left, and Frai was about to fill up.

"Hurry up!" shouted Kate again. "The vehicle is not designed for this place and is rapidly running out of energy!" She suddenly turned around and looked at the digital screen. "Oh, shit! Dozens of them are coming towards us!"

ZenaSer-Hewa shone once again as Xwa pulled Asino and Layap in. Frai trembled but still managed to fly. The vehicles formed a blue glow and suddenly disappeared.

We're locked in!" said Kate in a broken voice. Now she had no hope left in her eyes. "There are dozens of objects after us."

When you looked through the windows, you could see nothing but heavy snow. However, there were dozens of objects on digital screens that came towards us from different angles. They were fast.

"These are smart bullets, and they won't stop until they destroy us!" said Layap, trying to breathe like a trapped prey.

"They're coming at us fast." Kate said helplessly.    

"Do something, Kate," Roder pressed him. Kate was trying to get away with maneuvering, but it didn't affect the bullets at all. Marcus looked at the remote in Asino's hand.

"Is your ship still standing?" he asked Asino. His voice was calm.

"Yes, it never falls without being completely torn apart." Asino seemed to have lost his soul.

"Then bring it to us." Asino did something on the remote, and the ship began to approach again, visible from a distance.

"The maximum range of the bullets is 257 meters and the arrival times are 13 seconds." Kate said calmly.

"Kate, change our frequencies with Asino's ship!" shouted Marcus.

"What good is it?" asked Kate in the same soulless expression.

"Just do it!" shouted Marcus.

"Two seconds to go." Kate said. Life would be over in just two seconds. Marcus quickly turned to me. In his gaze at the moment, I saw the hope he had hidden for the last moment. He didn't tell me anything. He just looked. Something trembled inside me and took command. That wasn't that thing named Xziko. That was something else. It was good and trusting. It was like me, but it wasn't me. It was touching my heart as a wise man who raised me again. It was beautiful. The effect was something else entirely. It was becoming a growing balance within me. Everything started to make sense. My thoughts went to Marcus.  I understood him. It felt like it happened at the last moment. But I understood him now. His voice was coming from somewhere more than time. It was clear.

Go and do what Kate has to do.

That was it. Time slowed down and I accelerated. That half a second in normal time was exactly 7,500 seconds or 2 hours and 5 minutes in the time I was in. That was a long time.

I moved normal in my speed version. Time was like a fish stretched into the nets. As I walked, there was mercy in my heart. The beauty of existence fascinated my soul. I was there, but it was like dozens of beautiful beings were with me. It was like I had eyes popping up all over the place, and I was looking everywhere in different angles. At that moment, I was full of peace, with the balance of life and death mixed there. I had spring breezes in my heart. This beauty that surrounded my soul was not strange at all. It was as if all this thing needed was the increased peace in my heart. The more that feeling did, the more happiness I had all over me, and it reached all those other things. I was in a beauty that appeared untimely.

I felt like I could get out of Frai or even fly. I knew I could destroy the bullets or send them back to where they came from. But I didn't do any of that. It was like I had to destroy ZenaSer-Hewa.

I arrived at the digital screen. I didn't really know how to do that. But the second, third or other beings in me whispered how to do it and made it look like I'd done it a lot before.

I had another new power in my fingers that was lurking on digital screens. I could feel it when I was changing the frequencies. I went back and touched the button that Asino could get away from his ship from the remote. I didn't think of that. That peace in me also helped me know everything.

I went back to my old place. There were two hours and three minutes left. I liked it so much, I didn't want to leave it. But then all that beauty quickly left me. Time accelerated as I slowed down.

Frai was moving fast. ZenaSer-Hewa was left behind and 13 bullets as big as our Fra were lodged in its torso. About a second later, when the flames started to appear, there was a distance of 132 meters between us. ZenaSer-Hewa, which exploded like an atomic bomb, was no longer there. Glitters quickly swept away all the snow and falling pieces of metal.

Asino fell silent as he mingled with the absence. That ship he gave his memories of was gone. It was gone, just like Zena, the woman he loved. His sadness had a volcano effect on me. It was the first time I've ever seen a person so sad when they were quiet. Two big tears came down from his big blue eyes.

It wasn't just a tear. There was a burden in his eyes that he couldn't stand time and betrayals. There was a pain that no one knew about that was running deep now in this brief moment.

Each of us had stories. I remembered my love experiences, which I thought hurt me. All those stories that once I wouldn’t change world for, were now being tossed like ashes from a deflated fire. My curiosity and passions were blown away like gasoline.

People were dying. War and poverty had collapsed with a weight that broke their backs. It was more painful to fight in oneself. The painful experience and maturity of losing loved ones would not leave a mark on our foreheads. The storms of the seas of grief that had plunged into our hearts like daggers had now intensified and swept the mountains away. Asino slowly raised his eyes, witnessing all this. A new expression and purpose appeared in his wet eyes.

Even though what we were doing seemed to be our own choices, I knew it wasn't. It wasn't desirable. It wasn't something to be wanted. It was an impact from beyond and was very difficult to resist.

"I swear to God, as long as I live, I'm going to be after the people who did this." He said. I thought if his life had grown to the end of the apocalypse, he wouldn't have let it go for a second. The pain had given him a new purpose.

"We're going to find them." Layap said. "And then everyone will pay the price." He had as much grief on his face as he looked at Asino. He put his hand on her shoulder as a friendly way. "And they will regret what they caused."

"In half a minute, all our energy will run out." Kate said. It was like it was her turn to break all the bad news today. The sudden decisions and emotions on her face made her miserable, too. "There's still a big collision up there, and the ground's too low."

"Use this." Asino said, handing the remote to Kate. "It has got enough stored energy." His pain was now shifting in one direction towards revenge. The flames in his eyes were turning into a strong will. He was angry, and his impatience was growing with each passing moment.

Kate quickly took the remote and turned the bottom to the left. When the conductive parts appeared, he immediately fixed them to the ground with a fluidity between liquid and solid. The battery screen changed from dark red to light white.

Estimated time is 1 hour and 32 minutes.

This light red writing that appeared on the screen now seemed like a gift to life.

"I'm afraid I still don't know where we are." Kate continued sadly.

"Everything's locked. All systems are controlled in a way that we can't deal with." Xwa said in a strange voice.          

"Stop!" shouted Kate. "A lot of objects are approaching."

Marcus got up and walked up to Kate. There were maybe hundreds of triangular shapes on the digital screen.

"Kate, do something to hide Frai!" said Marcus suddenly.

"It's metal!" said Kate reproachfully. "They see it anyway. And I don't know where to go. There's fog and snow everywhere. We are in a blind eye."

I quickly reached into my bag and pulled out the HDD that I never took away from myself. Nina looked at me in curious eyes.

"Kate," I said calmly. "That should do it. It operates independently of satellites and all other transmitters."

Kate had just planted it when Frai signaled that what was coming towards us as entering our proximity. There were pieces of metal falling from the sky like it was raining. It was as if there was a metal grinder up there and all the other metals on earth were being grinded there.

"Okay, here's the physical map of the place!" shouted Kate. Esme broke her long inactivity and sent Nina a hopeful smile. Kate mounted the HDD on fluid plasma. The image immediately appeared on a computer screen.

"It's a mountainous area, and it could give us an opportunity." Roder said with hope.

"Here we are." Kate said. "There are mountains high on both sides. This is probably a big valley."

"Kate, stop!" shouted Marcus suddenly. "A little behind... There was a cave a little further back." He slid left, making Kate to draw a sudden curve.

"Okay, I found it." She said with joy. Frai slowed down and got stuck in a darkness. The edges touched the edges and top of the cave. The sound of hard metal trembled in the cave.

"Stop the engines!" said Marcus immediately.

"Sleep mode," said one voice. All of a sudden, all the noises stopped. A large piece of stone descended from the top of the cave, causing a tremor. Then the tremor continued and the other stones began to fall. An avalanche broke out with a deep rumble from the outside and engulfed the place with an earthquake-like tremor.

A sudden silence has broken. All that's left was the sound of those treble engines of passing vehicles. It was as if they were all over the sky. The quake that engulfed the sky was the kind of thing that would lead you to despair. The twilight outside had now left us here in the darkness of fear. The mouth of the cave was completely closed and it started to make us look like we never existed.

When the lights of night mode turned on, painful expressions appeared on our faces. We didn't have to say anything. We were miserable.

"Nina," I said calmly. "I think you'd better take a look at them." I showed her Xhero and Nava. They were both in bad shape, and Nava hadn't come to herself yet. Nina calmly got up and walked over there. Asino followed her to help his team. Frai was a small vehicle for himself and had difficulty moving. So, I moved on to the front compartment with Kate and Marcus to make more space.

Marcus was telling Kate about the short inferences. Kate was working on the HDD. When Esme and Roder approached, Kate was walking her hands on the touchscreen.

"Now is the time to understand where we are." She said, detailing the image.

The image became a satellite image by analyzing it. Our hideout pointed to a cave in a large mountain range. There were mountains with rocky version moving steeply around. There was a lake at the base where the mountains meet.

On the right side of the image was a stream that continued. Several settlements began to appear as the image was quickly detailed. Again, empty spaces appeared and a more populous city appeared. Immediately afterwards, a sea appeared that continued ahead.

"Can you move a little faster, Kate?" asked Marcus in a calm voice. But his hasty demeanor indicated he was not calm.

The land part became clearer. Dozens of streams were ejaculating into a sea, and mountain ranges lay behind it. The image has gone a step further. Islands appeared at sea. Further south, the bays appeared.

"This place looks so familiar." Kate said excitedly. She expanded the image once again.

"This place... This is British Columbia." She looked at Roder's face. "This is a place in Canada."

"That's right," Esme said. "And this is the Pacific Ocean. But why?"

"What do you mean?" asked Roder anxiously.

"Aren't we supposed to be in Turkey?"         

"Yes," he said.

"You're right," Asino said, approaching. Esme turned his face from Roder and looked at her. "We're not where you think we are." Everyone looked at him. The others approached us. "If we got the element, we'd go down here and hide it, and then we'd arrange a secret meeting with the heads of countries and distribute it quietly."

"We didn't know about this?" asked Marcus.

"Yes, he's right. We should have known that." Kate said in an angry voice.

"You're right, but I was the only one here who knew that. Commander Xelef would conduct the rest of the work in secrecy. Things were happening that you didn't know about. What I don't know... And things you'll never want to know..." He turned around and looked at all of us. His face, like the others, was full of outrageous behavior. "It doesn't matter now. We're all very sad. They took the element, and there's only one option left. We're counting towards the end."

"So, we lost? So, all this was for nothing?" asked Marcus. Asino's attitude must have him off, which raised his voice. "And we're not going to do anything anymore?"    

Xwa and Layap bowed their heads. Nava and Xhero seemed more expressionless.

"The climate was unstable." Xwa said a long time later. Everyone turned around and looked at him. "Our depleted energy had hit us to the bottom. It was all over. But in just one day, the ice age began. Something triggered it. I think that's what needs to be considered." This time he looked us all in the face. When he saw we were waiting for the rest, he kept going. "Normally in the northern hemisphere it is summer in CemedaSar, or Canada as you call it. It was cold around here, but there was only snow on the mountain range, which was very little. But just a day later, now the avalanche is falling and it is snowing heavily."

"So, you're saying the ice age started in one day?" I asked. It seemed impossible if that this was true.

"I can't think of any other explanation."

"Well, what about the war?" asked Marcus.  

"I have no idea."

"The invasion will begin." Nava said suddenly. "We don't have any energy. No sun, it's cold everywhere, and the war has begun. What do you think all this means?"

Nava suddenly stood up as if she had found courage. She didn't care about anybody anymore.

"The invasion will begin. The Dark Ones… They planned all this thing. Now no one can stop them. We're all as good as dead. For at least 22 years, they haven't made a sound or given a sign. Don't you ever think about it? They destroyed a land in their territory without mercy in front of the whole world. They stood up to the whole world. But then they mysteriously went underground. No one got in there. At least no human being ever got out of there again. No one's learned anything about them."

Her voice was like a heavy machine driving over my heart. Ideas about the Dark Ones which were unclear, were coming to life in pieces. I didn't know what to do. The idea of a long life and the dreams I had about that woman scared me. Xwa said they've changed and become something else. What did all these mean?

"There was a pertuma that was printed years ago," Nava continued. "And my father got one from the publisher. Actually, they were best friends. And yet my father only got one."

"Pertuma?" asked Roder and Kate.

"Yes," she said. “After the pertuma was published, the man's body was found dry two days later and no one ever knew what had happened."

"But someone dies every day from bodily harm." Layap interjected.     

"It's true. But this murder has been eliminated by someone who was unknown."  

"Well, what was in the pertuma?" asked Marcus.

"From what my father told me; the Dark Ones were up to something. Something had happened that was going to extend their lives. They've grown stronger and acquired new talents. But there was no source of all this. My father spent 12 years dealing with this mystery because he lost his best friend. Did anyone know that?"

…

"It's true. No one knew. One day I woke up and saw my father dead. That's all there was. No one ever knew what happened. But before I did an autopsy on him, I could see a needle mark on his neck."

"We heard that your father died suddenly." Xwa said in a sad voice.

"The only true part is this. So those mysterious people covered up his case."

"What about the invasion?" asked Roder.

"I started after my father's death. I've learned a few things. This is one of them. In fact, as far as I know, it's stage two to last. It was said by someone I trusted very much."

"Well, whose side is your friend on?" asked Asino. He sounded angry.           

"She doesn’t have a side."

"What kind of invasion is this going to be?" asked Marcus. The subject mattered. But now I knew what was going on. At least, Marcus and I were thinking the same thing.

"First they'll get all the people they can find. Then they'll use the element. Once their needs are complete, they will start an ice age that will last 10,000 years with the blast centers they have placed all over the world. All technologies and metals will remain atomic dust for thousands of years.  No one will stop them now."

Asino was skeptical of her. "Well, how could they find the element?" he asked. "Even we found it difficult."

"They might have thought that one day there would be someone who could bring it."

"Could they have thought about it?" asked Roder. "It's not something you can do just by considering a possibility. In fact, I am very curious about your source."

Nava looked at Roder in anger. She seemed to be in trouble. When she saw Asino looking at her the same way, she swallowed and turned back to her mysterious sadness. "There's nothing more difficult than losing a loved one. I've met with my source more often with this sadness. She told me something about Zena. Do you know what happened to her?"

"She... She disappeared and never showed up again." Asino replied. Distracted, his voice suddenly softened and he took on his old grief. That's why I looked at Nava in anger. I was deeply affected by that man's deep sadness.

"We have no reason to keep secrets anymore. After all, it's the end of all of us." She said in a desperate manner. How did Nava suddenly change like that? There was a deep secret hidden in her eyes. It didn't take any trouble for her to speak freely. "She's alive, Asino." She said. I'd never heard her calling Asino by his name. Now her sad voice sounded like someone who was addressing cowards in a dark room. "She's alive and she's with the Dark Ones. I never told you that. But she is our enemy."     

"That's a stupid thought!" angrily, Asino raged. "This is stupid for any word!"

"You said you saw her sometimes. You said she passed by your eyes like a shadow and looked at you and then suddenly disappeared. You even said once that she touched you and that her hand was cold as ice."

"All this is true, but that doesn't mean she exists or is with the Dark Ones. It doesn't mean she's a Dark Walker." Asino seemed to be in deep trouble.

But that last word scared me more than he did. It was terrifying. That was the word I saw in my dreams. It was used for Nina. That's what that woman said. I trembled. But I didn't show it. I got a terrible burden sitting on me.

"If she was alive, we'd find her." Layap interjected. "We've scanned her frequencies all over the world. I even did it twice with my own hands."

"Because she's not alive. I mean, not like us anymore. She has changed. She feeds on blood. She kills and does all the evil without hesitation. The sun burns her skin. Because she's a monster. She's a Dark Walker. Because she’s the one who killed my father. That damn woman killed my father! Do you understand that? She's a monster!"

My eyes grew and my heart started beating fast. All she told reminded me of the woman who haunted me in my dreams. Biting Nina, killing her, coming after me and that guy who looked like me... I was confused. This couldn't be real.

"Enough!" shouted Asino. "You can't blame her because your father’s dead. She's gone, and now you can't speak behind her back. No one can! Do you understand that? If you say anything about her again, I won't care about what is coming next."           

It was tense. In a short moment, so much had happened that reality remained a mystery hidden behind hidden curtains.

"This is all bullshit!" laughed Roder. Then he calmed his voice and looked at everyone. I was wondering what he was going to say. His testimony was mixed with ridicule. But in there, a hidden fear was manifesting itself comfortably. It was as if he was going to object to something he could never accept.

Just like the confessions that are hidden in all of us... Just like the deep fears we would never want to happen...