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(Page 3 of 7) Saelieni Chapter 3 by Gregory Harvey
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Plural. What the hell else is waiting for us out here?"
"Let's just get back, ASAP," Cadell said, "I'm not standing out here waiting for my face to be clawed open."
There seemed to be a general consensus.
"Alright, let's move, directly out. We can find the samples on the way. Box the civilians, let's go," Will said.
The four army guys formed a square around Melanie and Arthur. At first Melanie expected that they would run, but was pleasantly surprised to find they didn't. Instead they walked, probably not wanting to draw attention, or put Arthur through anymore then they had to. Although she wouldn't tell him, that wound on his head looked a lot worse then what he thought it was.
As they started moving, Arthur spoke, "Remember. Don't think."
He didn't receive a reply, the words merely echoing into the dust.
***
The intersection of Chadford Road and High Street was in the northern section of the town, meaning there was a relatively long walk in front of them. It was about two kilometers across the town, and the base was a further kilometer outside of it, although there was a jeep they could use to travel that distance (due to all the junk, maneuvering the thing through the town had proved nearly impossible). They'd have to cross the train tracks and the creek as well. They'd either have to walk through the creek (it hadn't rained in a month, so there wouldn't be much, if any, water in it) or take the bridge, which was the long way around.
As they approached the point where Arthur had seen the shadows in the sky, he experienced a moment of hesitation. At least this time, however, there was no song stuck in his head. Although he was still thinking (because inevitably your mind had to be thinking about something) he was not overly so. He only hoped that no one else was either.
William Garson and his men moved silently, with only that terrible rumbling grating in their ears.
At some point, Garson had stopped, bent down and lifted a steel lighter that was lying on the bitumen. Next to it was a compact disc, "Beethoven's Greatest Hits", resting face down. Will took that as well, after all, he had been requested to return with samples of the objects by his superiors.
***
As they reached the highway, Arthur found himself looking to see if anything had changed. It hadn't. Everything was in exactly the same place as when he had left it. His sight was drawn to the café, and in fact he was half expecting to see one of the monsters (Moonsana Clan... he told himself) standing outside of it. In the back of his head he could still hear the claws as they tapped against the glass, or whatever they had been tapping against.
He was thinking too much... he had to stop it.
As a measure to try and stop herself from thinking, Melanie was attempting to picture a wall of blackness in her mind. She could only hold it for a moment or two, however, before an image of her mothers face... or the monsters... or the dead soldiers... would burst from it. But even those images she could quickly sweep back with another wave of blackness.
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