Brant Desperate to Survive

1. Auflage 2012
ISBN: 978-1-62488-386-6
Verlag: BookBaby
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 285 Seiten

Saige, Shellian, and the remnant of the scouting team were finally able to contact the remaining cities hidden in the desolation. Letting these cities know the reasons for a number of the cities that had gone dark, silent, and leaving not a clue behind as to why. With the distances between cities great, these silences had gone unanswered, undiscovered. Finally their time of isolation was at an end. Yet with the desperation that lay upon all of them, they were given the task of bringing to an end this undeclared war, a war that the primitives had brought upon them. But they were only ten. How could ten individuals defeat the thousands of warriors that had banded together as the alliance? An impossible task for sure, yet if they did not find a way, then their way of life, their very lives, their cities were at stake. And from their true history, discovered in the archives at the Alpha, they, and the cities, could easily be the last of their kind. So what choice did they have - find a solution or die. Yet, how to go about it, how did one win against such an overwhelming enemy? They had to admit that they had no answers, no solutions, and as is always the case, no time. In the end, and with the impending threat of annihilation, they were out of ideas, out of plans, and with no true direction, they were desperate to survive.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Brant, F. D.

Leseproben

Chapter One Saige looked across the hidden meadowlands as the morning light crested the extinct volcanic walls that surrounded them. With the clouds that hung in the sky and the suns rising, the clouds took on many colors, from a deep gray, and as it lightened, to a brilliant orange. If the situation wasn't as desperate as it was, such a sight would be worth stopping and enjoying. But fall would be here and in the lowlands soon, and that would mean that the primitives once again should be looking towards winter and a possible break in the attacks. With the destruction of who knew how many cities since their desperate flight, when theirs had been one of cities lost to the primitives, they had been cut off, isolated ever since. And he knew that none of the surviving cities had any idea as to why the ones that had been attacked had gone dark - silent as if they had never been. Whoever this leader of the united force was, he had been smart enough to make sure that no one left the attacked cities to warn the others - except their scouting unit, of course. And as far as the primitives knew they had been destroyed on their desperate flight, and the few that may have escaped had died in the Sacred Mountains. He hoped that the team that he had left back at the Alpha or Alpha compound, complex, facility or however else they had identified this place, had figured out enough so that when he and this group returned that they would finally be able to make contact with any of the surviving cities - if there were any. It was hell not knowing. Yet at the same time he did not know what his small group could do anyway. Sighing and taking one more look around he could see that the rest were beginning to stir. It was time to get moving, to find where their ancestors had left this meadow to do their research among these primitives. Looking at the size of this bowl he shuddered with the thought of how it must have been in this area when this volcano had been active. It was only one of many, and it explained why the primitives had considered these mountains sacred, a place of their gods. It had to have been a spectacular and awe inspiring sight when they had erupted. He was quite thankful that all signs pointed to these as being extinct. He walked away from camp and relieved himself, and then on the way back in smelled the smoke of their cooking fire. He realized that he was quite hungry and his stomach growled in agreement. It needs to be today that we find the way in and out of this place. I truly did not realize the size of this valley. Probably would have been smarter to have had everyone out here looking. But Stone and Sorrel had stated that it was huge, in fact around 10 kilometers around the perimeter from their estimation. Still until one actually sees it - well I just didn't realize it, that's all. It really makes it a very large area to explore and find that elusive point where one can leave this place, and find that other exit out of these mountains. On the previous day as they had worked their way across they had searched a number of likely places. But so far nothing had been found. There were a number of smaller cinder cones and many ridges and rises. With one area looking like a small town with the spires and blocks of broken lava, and another looked to be a small army in the distance. He had pictured in his mind a rolling meadow, not this broken rough land that surrounded them. Yet, he had to admit that what they were seeing made more sense than the images he had created in his mind. The history that they had been taught in their education centers had turned out to be false. It had been the discovery of this Alpha compound hidden deeply within the sacred mountains that had shattered that false history. Here they had learned that one of the strongest held beliefs that they were from this world dissolved away. This facility proved, for anyone who would doubt, that they were descendants of anthropologists, sociologists, scientists, geologists, the support staff, and the researchers - ones who had come here to study primitives, their societies, their interaction with one another, the planet, plant and animal life, and geology. But something had happened and they had become isolated. Their ancestors had decided to remain separate of the native population, and to hide from their sight, using the technology that they had to make their cities invisible, and to build them in inhospitable areas to make it even less likely that they would be discovered. It had worked for a few thousand annuals, but now something had changed and the cities were falling to these primitives. Winter was a time, from their personal experience and study that the primitives stayed within their camps and shelters. But late spring was a time to search and prepare for battle and with it, he knew, this alliance would search for more of their cities. Yet looking at this camp he would never have guessed that all this had transpired, or was pending. Here, right now, everything looked so peaceful, so normal. "Hey Saige, how'd you sleep last night? Stone asked. "It was much colder than I expected. But I guess I can blame it on the fact that we have been sleeping indoors for quite a while." He's right. Even though we had spent half of the past winter in the caves on these mountains, the last portion, through late summer, had been spent in the Alpha so all of us had gotten used to being inside. "Okay, I guess, Stone." Then changing the subject Saige said. "That food smells just great. What is it about food cooked over an open fire that makes it seem that much more appetizing, anyway? Did you see that sunrise this morning, spectacular if you ask me? Look, once after everyone has gone off and taken care of nature and eaten, we'll get together and look at how we want to approach this day. We flat are running out of time, and I just did not expect that there would be so many places that could have been an exit out of here. One thing for sure, we cannot allow the primitives to discover the Alpha compound. We just do not have the strength to defend it. And I know from what we have deduced there is another way out of these mountains giving us other ways to protect these secrets." "Yeah, it only makes sense. Compound Alpha's best security is for it to remain unknown, and hidden. Not that our ancestors didn't do a wonderful job of hiding it. After all if you hadn't literally stumbled on it we wouldn't have found it." Laughing at the comment Saige said. "Now that's an understatement, if I've ever heard of it, and thanks for being kind about that incident." Thinking back on what Stone had just mentioned he knew that he had been lucky that he hadn't been killed. He had literally stepped off a cliff and had fallen into the compound. So, "stumbled on" was being kind. Looking around he could see most of the rest of the team were returning from taking the morning nature call, and gathering around the fire. They shared the cooking duties and this morning Staven and Starr were preparing the food. He could hear the friendly verbal sparing between the members of the team, which sent him back to where it had not been so friendly, and their group had literally fallen apart. Saige had to admit that much had happened in such a short time, and knew that so much more had to happen in even less time. But he did not even try to guess what the future might hold at this moment, and having any ideas on how to break the alliance, well, none at this moment. All he could do was shake his head, as what lay ahead appeared to be quite overwhelming, if not impossible for such a small group of people that they had. It saddened him to realize that in that desperate flight that they had lost almost all of their members, and the ten that were left were so small, so how could one then defeat the primitives? * * * It had been difficult to make this Keenan understand the severity of the situation and that they were the real thing, and not some prankster who was trying to pull something over on them. After all, the Alpha compound had been forgotten in time, like their true history. So it was of no surprise that there were problems. Saar with the help of Seirra, Sabryn and Seve were able to finally get the critical information that needed to be passed on to the remaining cities, about what had transpired with the ones that had gone silent, had gone dark, and why. After all, whoever led these primitives had made sure that the attacks would be, first, a complete surprise and there would be no alarms to alert not only the occupants of the city under siege, and second that none would ever escape to alert the other hidden cities. These primitives had complete success until their attack on Sequoyah, it was the only city that still maintained a trained group of individuals who could live in the wild, and possibly meet the primitives on their own terms, giving them the tools to survive. The rest of the cities had eliminated these elite teams, saying that it was too expensive, and besides they were safe within their hidden cities so such a force was no longer necessary or needed. Out of the approximate 100 members that escaped from the city of Sequoyah only ten now remained. They had to fight for every foot of their flight, and the cost had been high. It wasn't that Keenan was one who did not care, or just went through the motions; no he was just the opposite. In fact he had been questioning why, when the last city had gone dark, silent, and that the reaction from the ones in charge appeared to be much too nonchalant, and that it was business as usual. It was because of his strength of character that it had been so difficult. He was not going to move anything further along until he knew that what he was...