Chapter 29: Helpless
It was a life-or-death gamble!
The severity of the operation was clear on everyone’s minds as they took their first steps out of
the shuttle.
As the saying goes: to know your enemy is winning half of the battle, but for Ying’s troop, there
were simply too many unknowns about their adversary. They did not have the answer to simple
questions like how would these creatures know their location without the usage of
conventional sensory organs like eyes or a nose? What they had were speculations. Speculations
like they were tracing them through heat sensory, surface vibrations, or through the detection
of water particles released by the human body.
Even with Zhang Heng and Ying’s superhuman powers, the possibility of being wiped out was
not far from everyone’s minds. At the end of the day, they were still humans with vulnerable
bodies. They were not immune to damage, certainly not from needles that could literally suck
the life out of man within seconds.
Ying’s small group was made up of army holdovers from when the world descended into chaos.
There were two Germans, one French, one British, two Americans as well as two Chinese. Not
all of them were high-ranking officers in their original armies; some hadn’t even gone into
actual battlefields, but they were familiar with the basics of firearms and protocols. And
because of that, despite everyone’s highly taut nerves, Ying’s orders were still being closely
followed. The group was further split into three units, one trailing behind the other. Zhang
Heng, their human radar, was set in the middle.
Somewhere down the direction they were heading, a stream of smoke was billowing upwards.
On that windless morning, it was a clear signal for the landing spot of the other shuttle. This
saved them the trouble of scouting, but… the problem was that it was quite a distance away. A
rough estimate of the time they needed to get to the shuttle was about fifty minutes to an hour,
meaning at least ten stops for changes of air. It was a literal walk of death!
Every member of the party, including Ying, was extremely distressed, and that made for faster
consumption of the oxygen within the space suits. The member most affected by this was
Zhang Heng. He had the least military training, plus it wasn’t that long ago that he had his
narcotic addiction cured. Understandably, compared to the others, he had the weakest
physique.
It was Liu Bai who was the first to notice that Zhang Heng had gone considerably pale under his
helmet. He immediately requested that the party pause as he rushed over to unlock Zhang
Heng’s helmet. He yelled, “Ying, we need to stop! Everyone, undo your helmets! We need a
Liu Bai, after picking up on Ying’s stare, ran and kneed Ying in his stomach with the full force of
his anger. Roaring, he said, “Just what the hell are you thinking?! Did you forget that he’s a
Black Star as well?! Put yourself in his shoes for one second, won’t you? He hasn’t received any
formal training, so he doesn’t have the endurance the rest of us have. What is wrong with that?
Give him that look again and I’ll gouge out those eyes of yours myself! The rest of you! Didn’t
you hear me? Take off your helmets!”
Ying stumbled a few meters back from Liu Bai’s kick. Standing up, he sighed. “I’m sorry. That
was my fault… Let’s take a two minute break, then. But don’t let your guard down. Zhang Heng,
can you still access your heightened sense?”
A shivering Zhang Heng replied, in between desperate gasps of air, “I… I’m fine. I can still do
that…”
“Good!” Ying nodded. Without an apology to Zhang Heng, he planted himself on the ground.
Cradling his sniper rifle, he went as still as a statue.
After a while, Zhang Heng’s breath slowed and color returned to his face. Liu Bai strode to his
side and handed him a black pill that he had removed from his medical kit. He said, “Here, keep
this in your mouth. There will be an initial wave of bitterness, but it will pass… Zhang Heng,
don’t take what Ying did to heart. He can be such an insensitive prick at times, but don’t worry,
you’re one of us now; no harm will befall you from any one of us.”
Zhang Heng nodded enthusiastically. Next, he worked to train his focus on his surroundings,
hoping to return to that superhuman state. Nevertheless, other than the light that refracted off
the sea of sand, there was nothing else he could perceive. He would try other possible methods,
but since he had no clue how he had entered that state in the first place, this was the best he
could do. Under the planet’s sweltering heat and despite everyone’s general state of
dehydration, they started sweating.
The two minutes passed in a blink of an eye. Luckily, the break was monster-free. There was
hope that the operation might be finished without any encounter with those creatures. After all,
this was a desert planet. There was a lack of sustenance to nurture any creature, especially one
the size they encountered the day before. Perhaps there was only that one creature on this half
of the planet, suggested some of the men.
After forty minutes of trekking with many breaks in between, the tip of the other shuttle
Zhang Heng… They’ll come from behind you say… Liu Bai, hand him a pistol. Zhang Heng, I
want you shoot at the spot where you sense the danger is emerging from. It’s okay if you miss;
just shoot at the general area!
Zhang Heng nodded as he took hold of the pistol thrown to him by Liu Bai. With the weight of
the pistol in his hand, he couldn’t help but be reminded of the days he was practicing his
marksmanship with Ebon on the Hope. Of all the Black Stars, Ebon was the one who treated him
best, the one who made him feel like he was part of the fold. He suddenly felt teary-eyed, but he
reigned himself in. Pointing his pistol forward, he tried to concentrate his foresight.
Unlike the sensation of malice described by Ebon, Zhang Heng believed that his foresight
wasn’t something that focused on the opponent’s projected malice. It was an act of divination
or sixth sense, giving him a preview of the event that will happen next. Channeling the full
range of his focus, he wouldn’t dare to even blink for fear that he might miss warning someone
of impending danger.
The party stood prepared for about two minutes under the glaring sun. Some of the men started
to get dubious and impatient, but one look at Ying’s and Liu Bai’s austere expressions
persuaded them to keep their opinions to themselves. Suddenly…
“There!” shouted Zhang Heng as he shot at the sand dune before them. Almost immediately,
Ying raised his rifle. Within that moment, he could again feel the world shutting in on itself. He
could see the sand granules that were blown by the wind down to the details on each granule.
Among the canvas of the shifting sand, he could discern an outline of the creature hiding
within… It was something that looked like a gigantic yarn ball. In the middle of it was a
Ying’s words rallied everyone into action. The group charged towards the billowing smoke. As
Ying and Liu Bai ran past Zhang Heng, with a tacit understanding that could only come from
years of partnership, the pair half-carried and half-dragged Zhang Heng between them,
supporting him so that he wouldn’t lag behind.
Everyone ran towards the shuttle literally like their lives depended on it. Urging them on was a
noise that sounded like a colossal creature slithering towards them from underneath the
ground. No one was brave enough to turn and look! They all had their sights set on the shuttle
before them!
Step by step… Their destination came closer and closer…
The first person to reach the shuttle slammed directly into its door with barely any time to slow
down. After fumbling with the lock, he managed to get it open, then he lurched through the
open door and fell flat on the floor completely drained. Soon after followed the rest of the
group…
“Water, yes, sir, water and food, I will go get them… But the communicator is broken. With the
scientists’ modification to this shuttle, the extra voltage managed to support its antigravitational
system, but the high voltage discharge also fried the shuttle’s main circuit board,
disabling technologies like its navigator and communicator…”
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