Future Winds Read Online Free PDF Page B

nowhere emerged a tall, deformed creature that looked like the dead corpse of a giant, rotting, hairless, cross between a rodent and a maggot. Holes in the face exposed dark mucus and membrane. Sharp teeth lined its mouth that overtook most of its face. Six small tiny arms resided curled up on its sides. Its many legs looked mangled and broken: forcing it to almost limp its way towards them.
    It stopped dead in its tracks when the men and their drones, flashlights lit up the creature’s face. Kaito did not know what to feel. While slightly curious, the level to which he was sickened by the distorted appearance of the unknown alien prevailed as the dominant emotion in his current spectrum of being. Fear overtook and he began to slowly backpedal out towards the entrance of the cave.
    Leon’s eyes and pistols were fearlessly locked onto the creature until Kaito began to backpedal. Glancing over without actually moving his head, he too began to slowly back away.
    The beast raised its face up into the air at the site of the two men retreating and bellowed a loud nasally snort from its mouth.
    It is calling for something . No, maybe it’s just trying to communicate, Kaito thought, trying to comfort his worry.
    The creature got louder, flailing its face up in the air and snorting about.
    Definitely pissed off. Come on Leon, let’s get out of here, he pleaded in his mind, wishing in that moment, his leader Leon was a mind reader.
    The creature slowly approached and Leon stopped his backwards motion and stood his ground. His thumbs activated the laser sights on his energy pistols and he did not hesitate a moment longer to double tap both weapons.
    Four shots total sprayed the creature’s bones and brain all over the wall of the cave and what seemed more intense than the disintegration of the creature, was the echo of gunfire down the cave’s tunnels.
    Everything and anything alive in this cave heard it, had too. The bats above began to flee by the hundreds and, before the lower half of the creature’s now headless torso could fall to the ground and twitch out what was left of its existence, the two men and their drones turned, making a dash for the cave’s entrance and back out into the seemingly safe sunlight.
     
    ***
     
    The warp gate rattled the soil in all directions as it homed in on a carrier ship that was well over half the distance away between Earth and Flare.
    Aisha’s lips moved but no words came out. General physics would never allow the human vocal chords to be louder than the noise that erupted from the gate.
    In an instant the three of them could be vaporized into oblivion.
    “Here is hoping,” Tyler mouthed out loud, wordlessly.
    The warp gate carried on flailing about, screaming up into the heavens for about five minutes, then it just stopped. It let out heat and cooled down but was seemingly inactive. Then superficially, out of nowhere, a massive carrier ship appeared high up in the atmosphere of planet Flare. It floated up there for a few minutes before engaging its thrusters and making its descension to the planet’s surface.
    Astonished, the three watched the event play out over the course of ten minutes. Upon making landfall, the hydraulics kicked in on the giant quarter mile ship-- spraying dust and dirt in every direction. Taurus anticipated the dust spray and stepped up to shield Abram’s face.
    Tyler and Aisha were not so lucky to be protected from the dirt and debris. Looking at Abram with their faces caked in dust, ears still ringing, the trio began to laugh.
    A few minutes of camaraderie and cheering passed.
    “Well, shall we go welcome these aliens?” Tyler said, wiping his eyes and before he could finish his sentence, Aisha was off and sprinting towards the carrier.
     
    ***
     
    Kio-Kai and Lai-Kai reached the end of the tunnel. It opened up to unveil the city of Val-Muel--named after the queen of the clan who had her spawn construct it.
    Val-Meul was not the largest of Vai-Zik cities by