Chapter Five: A New Member in the Team!
“Hey get over here and give me a lift with this one you idiot!” shouted an angry voice
“I’m coming all ready have some patients boss” said an intimidated but dopey sounding voice.
Suddenly the wooden crate lifted itself up off the ground. “Huh, whoa” said Autumn. But then she remember she’d have to keep quiet if anyone found out she was in here she could end as far up as in jail.
“Duh, boss did you just here something it sounded like a girls voice in dis box?” said the dopey guy.
“What don’t be ridiculous come on lets walk this thing outside to that ship on the far left.”
(“Damn that tool heard me, I’m gonna have to keep real quiet now”) Autumn thought to herself she was even going as far as to only take half breaths. She really wanted to find Elisa and figure out a way to stop that creature that was walking around in her body.
Suddenly Autumn could hear a faint humming noise it sounded like the crate was getting closer to the ship. The planks of wood that held the crate together were tightly pressing against each other that no light was entering at all.
“All right you ready?” asked the angry voiced man
“For what boss” replied the dopey guy who clearly didn’t have any clue what so ever about anything in general.
“We’re going to lift this * crate into the back of the ship” the boss sounded really frustrated
“Oh yeah, course I’m ‘a ready boss”
“One, two, three, heave!” they both shouted.
Autumn felt the box levitate itself up into the air and then it landed fairly roughly on a hard floor all the Monomates in the crate with her fell all over the place. Finally it sounded as though a door was slid shut and locked. (“Yes, now all I gotta do is wait, maybe I’ll catch up on some of last night’s sleep I missed out on”) she thought to herself. She then closed her eyes and got as comfortable as she could get.
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Autumn yawned and then sat up rubbing her eyes. “Hmmm, I wonder how long I’ve been a sleep? I didn’t think space travel would take this long not in this day and age anyway” she said to herself breaking the silence. “Oh my god, I’m in space, I bet the view is awesome” Autumn started getting really excited about the whole matter. “Wait should I or shouldn’t I?” she stopped and thought about it. What if someone found out she was in the back of the ship. “Meh, you only live once they say” without any further hesitation. Autumn popped open the top of the crate and looked around her. She was in a well-lit room with other crates in it as well. She climbed out trying not to crush any of the Monomates as she left the box. “Wow!” she exclaimed as she got to the nearest rear end window in the room. The view was amazing to put it short. Single stars lay scattered throughout what appeared to be midnight black sheet they call space and larger clusters of stars all sat together changing from one colour to another. Autumn could see Palma quite clearly too it was like an emerald marble and it looked lost in amongst a huge area of star clusters.
All of a sudden Autumn heard a mans voice. “Yeah okay I’ll just go check the cargo out the back”
“Oh no!” said Autumn, she quickly ran back and tried to get the lid off the crate she was in but is was locked somehow. (“Damn it”) she thought.
Suddenly the back door opened. Autumn made a dash and hid in the darkest part of the room she could find with only one crate covering the left side of her. If that man walked around to check the other cargo creates all this would have been for nothing because she would get reported as a stow-away.
Autumn sat huddled up in a ball shape. Sweat gushing from her forehead. It was making her hair stick to her face. She had never been so nervous in her life. She tried not to breath so hard, her hands were shaking with fear. She watched as the sweat fell off her nose and onto the floor. (“Please no, please no, I have to find Elisa, please, please help me, I can’t go to jail”) she was praying in her head although she wasn’t a fond believer of gods, but at this time she had no choice. Suddenly an image of the old man she had seen the spaceport flashed in her head for a brief moment.
Then the man in the room turned and walked out shutting the door behind him like a robot following programmed orders. He never bothered to check the rest of the room. Autumn let out several sighs of relief. (“Thank goodness”) she said in her mind.
She slowly peered over the other side of the crate she was hiding behind and noticed the sky outside was now blue. The ship must have entered Motavia. Thick clouds made entirely of dust and sand blew past the ship as it slowed down for a landing.
“Okay when that roller door opens at the back I run like a headless chicken and I don’t stop for nothing” she told herself building up some much needed confidence.
Suddenly the ship began to release all the air pressure it had built up while travelling in space it let out a terrible screeching noise.
“Oww” exclaimed Autumn as she put both hands over her sensitive ears. The whole room seemed to vibrate as the ship screeched out. Then everything went dead silent the ship must have landed she could hear people at the front of the ship start talking and it seemed as though they were leaving the craft.
“Okay here goes nothing”
The roller door in front of her began to decrease its metallic form and transform into brilliant sunlight. When the door was about halfway open she seen a set of legs wearing thick black leggings with metallic knee-protectors. She also felt the heat swirl into the room. This was the hottest planet in the whole solar system. Then Autumn ran, she ducked out under the door and set off sprinting.
“Hey what they hell, you get back here!” yelled the man who was still opening the door at the back of the ship. Autumn never listened she just kept moving straight ahead.
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Sand was flicking up stinging the back of her legs as she ran but she wasn’t going to stop for something as humble as that. The heat of the sun beat down on her shoulders and the back of her legs it seemed to burn her fair skin on contact. She had been running for at least five minuets by now. Hopefully it was long enough not to get followed but she never stopped just encase they were tracking her she couldn’t take a chance like that. Not coming this far anyway.
Then it happened…
The ground began to tremble it shook violently something big was going on something big was roaming the ground right underneath Autumn. She stopped running it was only throwing her off balance now. Then she turned around and watched as the sand began to rise in front of her. She opened her mouth ready to yell for help but the might of this creature froze her from doing just that. A huge thick invertebrate emerged from the sand it was at least 20ft tall and a large portion of it’s body was still submerged by sand. It shook the sand off its body its skin was like thick brownish leather. It had a huge hole in the middle of its head green slime dripped from the hole that was clearly the things mouth. It made terrible gurgling noises. The noises it made hurt Autumn’s ears far more than the ship did.
Autumn then found the strength to start running she immediately turned and started bolting. But it was no use the creature was too smart, it began shaking the ground. Autumn fell over into the soft sand, it burned her. She struggled to get up the large creature started moving closer. Still violently shaking the ground it was as though it was deliberately causing an earthquake.
“Damn it” she said to herself. She then began army crawling along the desert as fast as she could even though her skin was being scorched she had to survive if she didn’t no one else would save Elisa.
It was still no use the creature slammed its head onto the sand a few meters behind Autumn, the shock wave sent her flying up in the air. “Whoa!” she yelled out.
Then she hit the ground hard. The soft sand seemed to have transformed into sharp gravel it was clear why. The creature was churning so much earth up just trying to catch Autumn, catch her to eat. She couldn’t move on. This was the end of her.
“I’m so sorry Elisa, I tried my best…I’ll see you in the afterlife” she sadly told herself. A tear ran down her face cleaning the dust from her cheek. Autumn’s eyes suddenly trailed up a bit. Off in the distance she could see a faint shape it looked like a hooded figure. It pointed a gun in Autumn’s direction.
“What?” she said in a worn out voice. Then her eyes closed and she heard several gunshots. Everything went black.
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Autumn awoke in a soft bed. She opened her eyes slowly and looked around she was in a small room it had a picture on the wall with a family of Motavians. There was a mother, father an older son and a younger daughter. They were all wearing robes and looked quite happy. They exhibited what appeared to be blue feathery faces and they all had brilliant red eyes. Next to her was a table with a bottle of water on it and a bowl of hot soup. Autumn sat up, she was now wearing totally new clothes too a long pink robe to be exact her old scrubby clothes lay folded up at the foot of the bed she was in. She also felt quite clean as though someone had showered her while she was out of it.
“I’m alive!” she told herself. “Where am I though?” she asked as she hopped off the bed. She ran her hands down the front of robe she was wearing it was very soft and let a lot of air in to cool down her body. This was the kind of clothes people wore on this planet. Auutmn walked over to the nearby window. She could see a few houses outside and some desert plants. Nobody seemed to be outdoors the sun’s rays were beating down on her face as she continued to look around. Suddenly the door opened a Motavian girl walked in she was also wearing a pink robe identical to Autumn’s robe. She had a red bow on her head. By looking at her she appeared to be around fifteen years old. Her eyes seemed to light up with happiness.
“Your awake” she said excitingly.
Autumn immediately recognised her from the portrait on the wall she must have been the daughter.
“Did you, did you save me?”
“No” replied the Motavian girl “My bother did though his name is Hank. He found you a few miles outside the village you were nearly eaten by a large sandworm.” She told Autumn.
Images of the foul creature flashed through Autumn’s mind. She never knew such animals existed, nothing like that was found on Palma everything was to populated to have wildlife taking over.
“Where is he I must thank him” exclaimed Autumn, her eyes widened as though it was her absolute mission to thank this man.
“He’s left on another hunting trip, he should be back soon however, you can thank him then. Oh I hope you didn’t mind but I bathed you and freshened you up. You seemed awfully knocked around and dirty. I made you that soup too. It’s supposed to be chicken noodle. I don’t know how it tastes though us Motavians don’t eat your kind of food.”
“Thank, you I appreciate it” replied Autumn who was now staring at the soup on the table near the bed.
“Oh and you’re a Numan, what brings you to this planet. I thought Numans only lived on Palma?” asked the Motavian girl curiously.
“Huh” said Autumn who seemed to have spaced out for a moment. “Oh, I…I’m searching for my friend she was brought here by something. It took her here against her will”
“I see” the Motavian girl didn’t seem to understand properly but agreed anyway.
“I plan on finding her” Autumn said this with confidence.
“Well I wish you luck, by the way my name is Isa”
Autumn smiled “Thank you Isa, I’m Autumn”
The two smiled at each other. Then a door could be heard slamming shut and footsteps made there way up to the room the two girls were in.
A Motavian walked in holding a large hunting knife he had a gun strapped to his yellow robe. Another Human fairly muscular walked in he was wearing a black t-shirt as well as long black shorts he had a light armour over his chest with a sword strapped to the side of his belt which also seemed to have a sack full of messeta hanging from it. His hair was cut short and was a light blue and he had equally blue eyes. Both men looked to be in their early twenties.
“Boys your home” said Isa happily running and giving the male Motavian a hug followed by a hug for the other man.
“Hi Isa” both the men said at once.
They then directed their full attention towards Autumn.
“So your okay” said the Motavian followed by a brief laugh.
“Yes, you must be Hank” she said. Autumn then walked up to him and held out her hand. He extended his blue feathery hand. They then shook, Hank smiled at Autumn during the process he seemed like a kind guy. “Thank you so much” she gratefully exclaimed.
She then looked behind Hank and seen the man resting up against the wall. She walked over to him being polite and introduced herself to him. “Hi, I’m Autumn Erra”
The man looked at her, his eyes locking on hers.
“Hmmm, you have red irises” said the man denying Autumns introduction.
This remark kind of surprised Autumn. “Well uh yes, Only Numans can be born with red coloured irises. But both Humans and Numans can however have green, blue and brown irises.”
The man chuckled to himself. “I’m William Walsh” he replied. Extending his hand also for a friendly shake. “But call me Will okay”
“Aah, nice to meet you” Autumn was surprised how easily he changed topic.
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Suddenly the room fell silent. “Um, nice weapons” said Autumn trying to break the tension.
“Yeah us hunters need these bad boys,” replied Will. “If it wasn’t for Hank here you’d be a goner now”
Hank pulled the shiny silver handgun from his robe. “Three shots from this bad boy and that sandworm will be pushing up daisies” he said boasting about the weapon.
“So you killed it right?” asked Autumn with a bit of worry in her voice.
Both men looked at each and started laughing.
“Don’t your worry about that poor sucker his corpse is now rotting just outside of town” replied Hank “I made sure it was dead, I’ll get the rookie hunters to go remove it tomorrow so it doesn’t rot completely stinking the place out.”
“Yeah, I’m sure they’ll love that” said Will grinning.
“So what do you guys hunt exactly” asked Autumn curiously.
“Bit of everything, mutated creatures, dangerous wildlife, dark beings…” Will was then cut short by Autumn.
“Dark Beings?” she asked.
“Yeah, they’re not the easiest things to track but we’ve killed a few before. Why are you so interested in the creatures from the Abyss? They’re definitely the most dangerous thing a hunter will ever have to hunt,” asked Will curiously.
Autumn fell silent she was thinking of the Profound Darkness that evil woman, that thing that claimed her friend. Elisa’s face flashed in her mind then images of the blood soaked room appeared, the corpses lying in the hallway the destroyed building. Everything completely destroyed. (“It’s time to find this thing!”) she thought to herself.
“Where do I sign up?”
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