ALIENS AND DEMONS
BOOK 1: DARK SECRETS AND DEATHS
BEN KING
Dark Clouds Rising
CHAPTER ONE
MOUNT RAMON, NEGEV REGION, ISRAEL.
A sharp shrilly sound tore through the air. It seemed to be mercilessly piercing through their eardrums. Piercing deep, down deep into their brains. The four teenage students swiftly, instinctively, pressed their palms tightly against their ears while scampering about for a place to hide. Unfortunately there was none, no place at all in that dead zone on the mountain.
Suddenly the loud brain piercing sound was cut off and replaced by an intermittent tranquillity. Then it without warning again, it was unleashed on them, all around them.
And then there followed a blinding succession of several bolts of lightning and a powerful thunder that quaked the entire mounting. It was as if a ten thousand tonne dynamite had been detonated somewhere nearby, like a stone throw away. It powerful impact sent the crew reeling on the ground and got their hearts beating like a piston in gasoline engine. Suddenly, almost immediately, they could feel the thick layer of sun-baked clay that had covered the mountain breaking beneath them as they struggled to their feet again.
They started trembling as they terror became real and ever present. As real and chilling as a ton of dynamite wrapped around your chest with the timer so close to counting down to zero. Hearts started pounding hard and fast against frail chests; legs turning into powerless sticks of jelly so weak they could scarcely support their body weights. All strength and balance was gone—seemed to have been sucked off by the mysterious occurrence. And worse still, everywhere suddenly turned dark, like a thick sheet of darkness had been laid over them. It seemed so strange, so bizarre, and so terrible. Not exactly an earthquake, not exactly an eclipse……just something so mysterious.
Lucy slumped, landing sideways on the dust-laden, sun-baked rocky ground. But strange, so strange, nobody took notice if it. Everything was happening so fast. The terrifying flashes began again, and it seemed to be going on for years, maybe eons of time in that fleeting frightening moment. It was as if thousands of strange voices were screaming down over their heads, hacking down their thoughts to pieces, confusing their brains.
She started convulsing on the ground. Still nobody noticed. Or maybe nobody gave a damn about it. Everything was happening fast and everyone was just too concerned about his or her safety to notice. Not to even mention caring about it. Brian, Shalom and Otega were still on their feet, strong-headedly trying to stay upright and keep their minds---though they
Dark Clouds Rising
continually staggered about like blood-thirsty zombies under the influence of the emerging powerful hurricane.
Suddenly, and abruptly, and worse still so scary again, all the torturous shrilly sounds and strange voices, as well as the frightening flashes were all gone. Gone in a blink of an eye. And the mountain was peaceful, tranquil again.
“What the hell was that?” Brian, the eighteen year old geologist cried out--- with mouth agape.
“I don’t know!” Otega shouted back, scared to his feet. His eyes beamed out the terror that had taken over control of his entire being. His ears could still hear a deep sound, like that of a bell ringing aloud in his head. It was no where around, just the effect of the mysterious occurrence outside.
Shalom was on all four---crawling, reaching out for safety like a frightened animal. She was too frightened to utter a word. Too frightened to stay upright. Too frightened even to cry. And then it started---she started throwing up.
“Hey, are you pregnant?” Otega asked concernedly.
Shalom shook her head slowly, some messy stuff drooling out of her mouth---something like catabolised kosher meal.
“Damn… no. I ain’t pregnant a shit. I….”
“Oh, shit! Come on, I’ll give you a …….”
That was the last words that came out of Brian’s mouth before that torturous shrill and another set of blinding flashes zapped down all around them from the skies.
“Shit!!!” Otega cried out at the top of his voice as he looked up at the skies.
“It’s a man!”
“What?!” Brian cried out too, and then left his mouth agape as he caught full sight of the naked human body that was falling down from the cloudy skies. In a couple of seconds he landed somewhere in the distance. No doubt dead!
“It’s a plane crash!” Otega shouted as he struggled to regain balance.
“Hell no! This ain’t no plane crash.” Brian countered, shaking his head, rejecting Otega’s suggestion.
Shalom rolled over, lying down with her back to the ground. She had seen the naked falling man. But everything seemed like a dream---a blurry freaky nightmare. She wanted to scream, but all she found herself doing was shut her eyes and prayed that she could wake up from the nightmarish daydream. She was dead sure it was all a daydream, a crazy frightening one. And she’d had just about enough. It was time to end it; it was time to wake up.
“Maybe the plane exploded, like a 9/11 attack” Otega tried further to press in his point.
“Wake up buddy! This isn’t an Al Qaeda attack. The falling man was naked, stark naked like Adam. He didn’t have a turban on, or a face cap, or a T-shirt and jeans, Or maybe a sucking suit. He was stark naked! Got it?”
Otega gave a quick nod of his head. “Yeah, got your point boy. I think you’re….”
“Look out!!” Shalom screamed at the top of her voice, her eyes bulging out…so big.
Lucy got bolted back to life, she seemed to have regained consciousness by something in slalom’s voice. The shrieking voice must have hit a sensitive nerve in her eardrums that triggered the wake up nerves in her partially-dead brain. Her eyes popped out wide open staring at the skies.
They were all frozen, for what seemed like a billion light years. Frozen by fear and absolute unbelief at what was up there in the air, almost right over their heads---a massive spaceship! Its design and technology were out of this world; far more advanced than anything they’ve ever seen on planet earth. So incredible!
A startling and varying display of multicoloured bright lights flashed from all around it, illuminating the entire area like a disco theatre.
“It’s a goddamn lie!” Brian whispered, over the air of fear that held them spellbound.
“This is unbelievable!” Otega added his voice to the awe that stood still in the air without moving or falling, shaking his head instinctively.
Shalom was speechless, frightened to the teeth and she quickly rushed down to Brian, grabbing his hands tightly.
Lucy slowly dragged herself up, moving closer to the others. At last she had believed it wasn’t a dream after all. What was right before their naked eyes was for real. An undeniable reality!
While unconscious she had seen one of the bloodiest and most sophisticated weaponry at use. It looked like the much dreaded world War III or the biblical Armageddon. Millions of helpless humans were being exterminated the world over. That bloody, fearful and ugly scene was no sooner replaced by beautiful scenes of paradise. She had felt her soul drifting through eons of time. But what was presently before her eyes was a reality.
All four kept staring at the amazing sight, lost in the gaze for a gazillion length of seconds. And then suddenly, incredibly, in a split second the spaceship disappeared into thin air, leaving no trail, no sign of ever being there. No, not even a spec. even all the dark clouds and the strong beams of coloured lights that got them looking up in the first place were gone!
“Jeeesus Christ!” Otega exclaimed, shutting his face in his palms in utter unbelief.
“This is a damn joke!” Brian said, hitting the radio power button several times but it was dead. Strangely dead.
** ** **
The climb up the mountain was more difficult than ever. But the passion that had been ignited in the kids was strong enough to keep them going. At this point, nothing in the world could stop them anymore. Not even the dead radios and CCTV cameras or fear. Thanks to their mentor, guide and inspiration---Dr. Mashard, who had lectured them so well about the mountains of the Holy land. The old man would have been there but he was too weak to climb up the two hundred million years mountains after the long hours of flight. Instead he remained at the base of the mountain, in a Bedouin tent.
Right from there he guided them through the state-of-the-art CCTV cameras, monitors and the radio which never left his hands. The videos transmitted by the tiny cameras mounted atop the kids’ head gears helped him to feel being there. And enabled him to give precise instructions back to them…only minutes ago before the sudden burst of static that filtered through his radio and the disturbing raster that strangely took over the screens of his four monitors simultaneously. It was a bizarre radio blank. So strange---how the four distinctive and individually self-powered cameras and radios went blank simultaneously. Something unusual must be definitely going on. He had decided he was going out there to see for himself since all effort to get the electronic equipment functioning properly proved useless.
Brian was the first to reach the top of the mountain. Not so far a point from the centre of the Maktesh---the crater. He felt all drained. All the burst of adrenalin seemed to have suddenly ebbed. Drained out without much ceremony. He kept panting and staggering along until he sat himself down at a corner beside a raised edge of the mountain.
“Jeez! I made it.” He finally said and took a long breath.
“You there, Brian?” Lucy shouted from below. Her voice reverberated up the mountain. But no reply came back.
No single word came back from above.
“Hello……?” Otega shouted again.
Yet no reply came back from atop the mountain.
“Oh my God!” Shalom panicked, placing her hands on her head instinctively. Something terrible might have happened to him, she thought.
“Hey, I’m okay!” Brian’s voice finally cascaded down.
Otega sighed, “You fool! You scared the hell out of us. Does this seem like the best time to throw in a joke, redneck?”
“I’m sorry” Brian shouted back from the top of the mountain. “Just give me a moment.”
“Hey, Brian. Don’t do anything stupid up there. That alien could be deadly.”
Brian burst out into a short racoonous laughter. He still couldn’t understand why Otega was still afraid of a dead body that crash-landed on a rocky mountain after falling several thousand feet from space. He shook his head, sympathizing with their sheer stupidity. “Piss off, sucker! I ain’t afraid of a dead-ass sucker”
Otega shrugged, hissing while his eyeballs rolled in their sockets from one corner to another, trying to decode the girl’s reaction to the downpour or insult Brian had just rained on him. It meant he was ball-less, a weak piece of shit afraid of his own shadow. The girls however seemed to be indifferent. “All right, then. Just be careful.”
“Get some balls, pal.” Brian added, injuring his ego further while clamping and hooking up the cord to a boulder. The cord would enable others to climb up much easier. Much of the crevices of the mountain had been blocked, filled with dusts and dirt. The dry reddish dust was everywhere. He could even see his breath.
Fifteen minutes later, all three were up on the mountain, joining Brian who got there first. , panting heavily and tossing their head gears on the rocky ground.
Brian reached for a bottle of Vodka he had hidden in his suit. That was the fourth time he was reaching for that same bottle.
“Hey, where the hell did you get that?”
“Chill out, babe. I’m an adult now. Got it?”
“Point of correction---young adult. And that thing is bad for you” Lucy cut in.
Brian raised his brows, smiling. “Whatever,” he said and grinned, “Sister Mother Teresa.”
Otega kept looking at the Vodka, as Brian gulped down at it. Dr. Mashard shouldn’t hear of this shit, he thought.
“Hey, pal.” Brian said, looking straight into Otega’s eyes. “Care for a shot? Maybe get some Dutch courage to fight the…..” he burst into a short laughter. “…the living dead body?”
“Stop the mockery, sucker!” Shalom attacked him.
“Really?” Brian muttered. “Anyway, I was just joking”
He tossed the small bottle containing vodka at Otega. He quickly reached out his hands and caught it but only ended up emptying the leftover content on the ground. “This is no good for us pals, we need our heads clear. Don’t we?”
“Whatever,” Brian said, laughing out loud.
The rest of the crew reached out for cans of energy drinks and quickly gulped the contents down, hoping to refill lost energy fast. The temperature was somewhat falling up there, but they seemed to be burning with heat inside. Thanks to the suits recommended by Dr Mashard, at least it helped to keep them at alert, in that lifeless and terrifying place.
Brian stood up, stretching himself once...and twice.
“ Time to go check out the dead alien from the sky”
Otega’s heart thumped hard against his chest at Brian’s announcement. He was still scared over the idea of checking out the fallen being.” You keep saying ‘dead’.”
Brian smiled sarcastically, “come on, that bastard crash-landed over this rocky mountain. He fell from thousands of feet up there! Reason, buddy. I thought we were supposed to be scientists, young scientists, not illiterate ass-holes?”
Nobody moved or said a word. But Brian’s words stabbed deep into Otega’s heart like an assassin’s dagger. He cringed, but fought hard to hide it from the other girls.
Lucy finally broke the silence, “ I think I’m scared”
Brian couldn’t believe his ears. He rolled his eyes around to focus at Lucy. “Scared of a dead body? Oh, come on give me a break! You guys are getting me pissed off here.”
Otega began nodding his head, slowly. “I think Brian has a point. I believe him because he has a point. I mean, logically speaking, the bastard should be dead. Simple logic should tell you so girls.”
“Lucy quickly nodded her agreement, and being pulled up by Brian she a deep breath and grabbed a penknife.
“Relax Lucy, I’ve got a gun here--- in my bag.” Brian said, assuring the crew. The teenage tone echoed beneath his voice.
“Really? Do you know how to use it?”
“Yep, it’s a Magnum point forty five, custom made. I got it when I turned eighteen. And...don't ask me how.” He burst into a short laughter. And then added, “It’s legal anyway. At close range...the damage sure leads to hell. Bang! You drop down dead!”
“We aren’t going to hurt him, buddy. I mean if we discover he is still breathing.”
Shalom sighed, and then started laughing.
“What? You going bananas?” Otega asked, staring at her suspiciously.
Shalom shook her head. “Nope, just can’t believe we are not alone in this universe. “Well, i still don’t believe it.”
“Are you crazy? Didn’t you see what happened only moments ago?” Brian asked angrily. “ Are you sure you ain’t the one bananas here?”
“ I...I...did. But...”
“No buts jelly,’ Brian attacked, shoved him backwards. “Didn’t you see it? Were you freaking dreaming back then?”
The impact got Otega staggering backwards, but he quickly regained his balance. He shook his head, wondering what was influencing Brian to be that physical. Maybe the Vodka? Or maybe not. Brian was always crazy, mad, stupid, a brute, a lover, a gentle man. He was such a complicated being. He gave up his thoughts and said, “ I did. Maybe i just don't want to own up to believing it. I’m sorry.”
“I saw it all damn clear, Otega. I heard all the voices, the lightning and thunder, the frightening beams of light descending downwards, the wind and the spaceship!”
Otega took a deep breath in, sighed and said, “Okay, let’s go get him.”
Brian pulled out his pistol and checked to see if it was still loaded. “Yeah,” he said smiling.
“ God help us, Shalom said---a short prayer.
“Hey, there is no God- or gods in the world. We are the gods!” Brian said, laughing. “After the First Cause, the Big Bang, we are the biggest thing there is...”
A slap across his face from Shalom stopped him from completing the sentence.
“What?!” he barked at her.
“You fool, that’s blasphemy! We just saw an alien falling from the skies. We are not the most intelligent beings in the universe. Didn’t you see the advanced-tech spaceship?”
ALIENS AND DEMONS
CHAPTER TWO
DANGEROUS GAMES
“ That’s the bastard over there!” Otega screamed.
“Jeez! This is damn so real!” Lucy exclaimed
Brian stood still, staring at the seeming lifeless body of a naked man, a scorched naked man, sprawled across the rocky ground. A small pool of blood leaked from beneath the body.
“He’s been torched by lightning. Or maybe re-entrance heat from our atmosphere. Damn real sucker!”
“Oh my god, what a mess.” Shalom laboured to keep her excitement under control. “All my life I had believed aliens were unreal”
Lucy shrugged her shoulders and said, “Who the hell in this sucking world would believe us?”
Brian was inspecting the scene from different angles. When he was done---convinced he was actually seeing a human---homosapiens, not a humanoid or a half beast half human piece of shit. Or a big headed, thin-necked and tiny bodied grey alien as he had often read, he sighed. “It’s incredibly a hundred percent man!”
Otega started moving closer. “We need to get this piece of shit back to Dr Mashard. Too bad he is dead.”
“Look,” Shalom said, “his skull is cracked, also he’s got a broken arm and leg. And blood is....still oozing out of his head.”
Lucy reached for the alien’s hand and pulled it up. “He’s for real! Oh, too bad he’s dead. And we...”
Swiftly, terrifyingly, the alien’s hands wrapped around hers, grabbing it so tight.
‘Oh my god, help!!!’
“Damn!!!” The three others chorused, stepping backwards intuitively. It was definitely clear they were too frightened to heed her cry for help.
“ Help me!!” Lucy cried out again. And then suddenly realised her body temperature was falling...falling drastically. And her heartbeat was slowing down. It was all so fast, so unnatural. So unexplainable. And then she realised as well, her strength was rapidly being zapped away. Like they were all being ported out through the aliens hands.
Spontaneously, the alien’s broken skull started healing, so also his arms and legs. So unbelievable, so incredible---like a miracle!
“What?! He is healing up so fast---see, the gash in his head is closing up and healing fast.” Otega pointed out---alarmed, his knees wobbling.
“I’m dying....please help me!!!” Lucy continued earnestly in tears, begging for help but annoyingly none was forthcoming. “I’m dying....I’m losing cold and losing strength!”
“I think he’s draining her to heal himself!” Otega cried out, staring at Brian. “Shoot him, Brian. Shoot him now!”
Brian pulled the trigger, in three quick successions. The bullets hit the alien on his right hand, forcing him to release Lucy from his lethal grip as he staggered backwards.
Lucy staggered away from as fast as she could, weeping and throwing up.
“Don’t kill him!” Shalom ordered.
Brian moved closer, holding the gun poised. “This is our world sucker, not yours. Now get down on your knees!”
The alien didn’t move an inch. He was just there, staring out wide—unafraid of Brian’s threat.
“I said get the hell down!” Brian shouted at him again.
Instead of obeying Brian’s order, he started moving forward, seeming to have gotten over the sharp pain in his right hand that he suffered from the bullets. The action unnerved Brian. He wanted to toss the gun at the alien and just....just take to his heels. Scram! But he quickly picked up courage again.
“ I said get down or I’ll shoot your slimy brains out!”
“Ka zu ka nu kaitan” the alien blurted out.
‘What the hell does that mean? Tell me slimy?”
The alien ignored Brian again. And took a step further.
Brian was frightened, he grabbed the pistol tighter and shouted” stay back now! I swear i’ll kill you---shoot your brains out if you take another step forward.”
“Shoot him! Shoot him, Brian!” Lucy begged.
“Ka zu ka nu kaitan. Ogidi kia.” The alien said, coldly.
Otega froze like ice on the spot, his mouth agape.
“What’s wrong?” Shalom demanded, staring at him, with alarm in her eyes.
“Brian, don’t do it. He just spoke my language.”
Brian sprung around, stopping to stare at Otega. “What? What did you just say?”
“I think I understand a part of what he just said.”
“You what? How the bloody hell?” Brian said, raising the pistol up at Otega, making sure he was pointing the nozzle at his heart. “Tell me now!”
Otega panicked. He became speechless. It was sure getting much more dangerous than he had ever imagined.
Lucy and shalom turned to cast a glance at him and back to the alien who just remained there like a fool. Otega looked so confused and unsure to them.
“ What the hell is Ka zu ka nu kaitan?” Brian reminded him of the need to answer the question.
Otega sighed. “ I don't know.”
Brian became furious. He quickly cast a glance at the alien, pointing the pistol at him, and then focused on Otega again. “What? But you just said he spoke your language?”
With that, Brian moved backwards and swung his hands around, pointing the pistol at Otega....
NOTE:
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