The Alien Orb (7 page)

Their legs
sank deep into stinking vegetation that resembled quicksand in
places, but Mitchell insisted that it was not and continued to take
them on through it as if it were not there and only another
obstacle – and the further away from the tunnel entrance they went
the worse it got, and the fact that they would not be able to
return.

Out of nowhere
a giant light emerged from the undergrowth, and it pulsated like a
living thing, magically illuminating the snow and trees
everywhere.

The light
allowed them to see everything, and he wondered if it was a type
warning like a lion might warn them off.

“
Look
over there!” one of the scientists suddenly hollered, from over at
their side, making them all jump and their adrenalin pump wildly
through their veins.

Bryson was one
of the first to look and spot what it was, and saw a castle buried
away in the landscape and he stood astounded not only by its
immense size but because he had a sensation that it had colossal
power, and it eventually left him staggered! He sensed many strange
things and was sure all the paranormal energy was centered
there!

The
castle was also blissful and they ignored the dangers around them
and watched it. It
radiated through the wood like a
spellbinding ghost castle, and they forced their legs to move
faster.

Its appearance as they moved there, out of
the night, amidst the jungle of vegetation, was staggering! The
treasure surely had to exist there! Bryson was amazed at the speed
that they were now moving away from the disturbances towards it at
and started to realize how enthusiastic they were to get to it now.
And he even sensed many of the others had known of the treasure for
longer than they should have, and were confident it existed.

Mitchell even forgot about his battle and
made for the castle, and as Bryson watched him he realized that the
tunnel had gone in the direction of the castle, and had led there
all along.

It was like a phantom castle glowing in snow
and shining from being in moonlight, like it were supernaturally
glowing.

Behind them shifting lights were darting
everywhere through the trees with ghost images of creatures doing
hideous things.

Chapter 11

The Phantoms

The thin fog
engulfed them before they reached the castle and peculiar vivid
streaks like colored lightening exploded all over the top level of
it, and Bryson saw the sky above it full of massive blinding stars
that he had never seen before.

One star’s
flickering light streaked into his face showing its real immense
size! It was truly unique and clearly some form of space from
somewhere else emerging.

He wondered
from his scientific perspective what the larger and more advanced
life forms would be like in such an environment. They had not seen
anything there, and he sometimes thought he existed in one of the
most barn regions of space.

The fog
rapidly engulfed them and they lost more of what little sight they
had, and they briskly moved faster, draining themselves of
energy.

If only they
could discover what was there without being killed, and he would be
annoyed if they never found anything!

Thick mud and
vegetation shrouded everything, covering their boots and clothes
with muck, and he imagined the mind-bending landscapes beyond there
and if they were the same, and he realized how tired he felt.

It was
shocking how easily they got trapped and lost and the worst of it
was he could not realize how they could avoid it. All they needed
to do was stick to the exact places in the last castle and they
avoided it. But here they could not have done it! Yet he was sure
that at the majority of the time they could actually have done it
if they had done it during the day, and that it was Mitchell and
his men’s fault that they had kept going and had not slept in the
tunnel until the morning. The vast dangers seemed to either stop
them dead or they went charging in, and everything turned
indistinguishable about him, and he wondered if it would be the end
of him.

At one point
he thought that he was actually on another world when he saw
through slight gaps in the thickening fog and saw distant regions
of strange places. Mitchell and the others stuck to the same
routine and never seemed tire or alter their course.

Strange high
frequency sounds shadowed them from unknown places, driving some of
them insane trying to identify them.

Their legs
started entering deep bogs of stinking rotting vegetation with
chemical stenches, resembling some chemical that he kept examining
to identify, wondering how such chemicals got there. Many smelt
like they had been dumped there by some industrial site and he
considered if an intelligent species there could have built
civilizations there. But his mind refused to accept anything
without further evidence and he considered it being put there
either by the builders of the castle, or the tunnel, or someone
else that had been there.

Out of nowhere
the most powerful light emerged through the thickest formation of
the mist with its radiance pulsating like an entity, magically
illuminating the thin fog around them with strange shadow
formations from things he could not see, creating mind-bending
shifting shadows that weaved and probed their way towards them.

While they
casually slowed and observed them sounds of heavy pounds of
something of incredible size and weight rushed out, causing them to
scurry away without being able to see anything behind them.

Mitchell and
his men withdrew their weapons and rushed along with them but
trying to see their target, and they furiously moved their legs in
and out of bogs as it grew nearer and deadlier, causing their legs
to become painful and tired, and they shifted away to hard ground
to be able to escape better.

It was like
they were making their last stand and being on the edge of
destruction and Bryson watched how each of them reacted, and
noticed Mitchell reacted the least and even looked as if he was
definitely going to kill the thing with his weapon.

For a short
time they ran almost blindly up and down over bogs and humps,
rushing through to where the flat had ground was.

Heavy beast
sounds furiously exploded out nearby and clearly chased them and
they considered turning and firing. It was common for large animals
to get frightened away from being fired on and he was sure that
Mitchell believed it and was sure that it was the same as the dead
creature that they had found in the tunnel, and that the last
creatures had not heard or seen their weapons as they had not fully
appeared there, and Bryson wished that he would confirm it with the
thing fully appearing, which he believed that it would have to do
to kill them.

It was like
being in someone else’s strange nightmare and Bryson started to get
annoyed over its avoidance of doing anything at all, and when he
swiftly turned he saw an immense shadow spread through an area of
the fog, where the sounds exploded out!

They were
breathless and they all stared blankly, and he wondered what he was
missing and what their explanations of what had happened would
be.

One of the
soldiers suddenly turned and started firing at the dark shape
shifting through the mist, looking too tired to be able to go on
properly at the rate they were going at and making an attempt at
survival.

With interest
the majority of them turned to watch the thing, and as far as
Bryson saw and heard it never even acknowledged his direct hit on
it, and it left them confused, and he decided to get him to try
again if it appeared visible.

Their legs
could not take them fast enough after the shot and the thing seemed
to speed up and close in on them, and Bryson cursed their stupid
idea of firing on it and running. Surely they could have made it
appear by entering a thin area of the fog and confronted it, as it
had to materialize to kill them, and at least they would not be
exhausted and could aim and fire all their weapons at it at the one
time.

The shape of
the castle appearing through the vapor was blissful, and they all
stared fascinated with it and in their luck.

The
lighted castle
radiated through a mass of trees and
foliage and Bryson was sure he would not normally have seen it, and
that it was not even visible to planes with its roof being
completely covered in vegetation and small trees.

It was like a phantom oasis out on the edge
of realism, on the bounds of what lay beyond, with the things
charging out of the depths of hell, with them running to it and to
reality.

All his looks back annoyingly never showed
him a proper view of the heavy monster thing rampaging towards them
and he wondered if the thing was playing with them, like a cat with
a mouse, waiting until it fully had it.

They moved straight up to the massive
castle doors, and Mitchell shot the lock and smashed it in and they
rushed in, exhausted and
staggered, and when Bryson got in the doorway he stayed at
the side of the door and listened and watched the fog outside until
the last of the men had entered and they shut the
door
, and he heard its powerful movements rapidly
taking it to the edge of a lane in front of the castle, where for
some reason it could not pass, and he saw its colossal ghost demon
shape floating through the mist, snapping its massive jaws, before
it vanished.

Chapter 12

Inside the
Castle

Even though Bryson had not properly
seen and measured the castle, as it was mostly buried away in thick
trees and undergrowth, it was colossal and he was sure that it was
far longer and wider than any type of football field, and as high
as an average eight-story building (and could
even
reach up to 150 meters long and 60 meters
wide, and 30 meters high).

The builder, William Randall, who had built
a castle already, surely would not have built it so massive at the
date that it had been built, and he wondered if the people that
rebuilt it there had built it bigger! If it was built for defense,
like most castles had been, why did he need it to be such a size,
as it would have been far easier to build and defend a small
castle? He would have needed and had to have maintained an immense
army for decades!

Why did they not just increase the size of
his army? Everything he had seen of people of that time had been
done for logical reasons! Yet he realized it was exaggerated and
that William Randall had built it, as he had built the last large
castle, but not as large as it, and it might have been to show his
immense power and wealth, and an army would also have thought twice
before attacking such a construction, and they could easily have
thought it held a great and powerful king, while it being buried
away in a wood would have added to its defense.

He was determined to solve all the riddles,
and prepared himself to find the proper answers!

He was determined to ignore the events of
the past few days and concentrate on what was in the castle. He had
seen little of it in the darkness with their lights, and it was
cold and smelled of dampness, and nobody left the location at the
lounge at the door.

Most of the night had been subjected to
false alarms of the things in the wood reappearing there, and they
had been glad when the morning arrived.

Later on he and Mortimer and Merton went
outside to see it in the light of day and were surprised and
disappointed. It was unbelievable and historical, but had fallen
into being a derelict. Vegetation and trees virtually entirely
covered it, including its roof, and it was part of the wood. It was
lucky the interior was preserved, as they would have had a bad time
staying there.

Bryson studied pieces from exterior walls
strewn about in the undergrowth, and immense square boulders and
other parts.

They wandered around it checking what they
could but a lot of it was hidden from view, and he had a hard time
realizing how they had been able to move it there! Why they had
allowed such a valuable construction to become derelict? And
realized again that it was the haunting of it and its deadliness!
There were abundant deaths marked as occurring there! He thought
the last castle had been bad but this one was deadly beyond belief
and people avoided it to save their lives!

He wondered if they should have just left
it! If they could not get rid of what was there they could be
playing with something of great danger that could result in an
immense amount of deaths, for decades to come.

Bryson made a rough drawing/map of it as
they wandered around. At the front there seemed to be only the one
central door, but there were others at the sides and back, and
there was one at a kitchen at the back.

The front door had a hall that led to the
other side of the castle, and long corridors of rooms went from one
end of the castle to the other all the way through it. With
different shaped and sized rooms everywhere. The majority of it was
confusing, and he found little to answer his queries. The floors
above were not identical, and he considered his theory that the
place was built to scare off enemies with its magnitude and value,
and he put all the things in it there for the building and with no
real use. Yet if an army and other group of people stayed there it
could well have all been used by them. They could have been complex
and advanced people of that age and did many things not normally
done.

He wondered where William had stayed in it,
and where his room was located? Perhaps at the top floor, where he
would have had a good view of his wood and grounds?