The Only Option for the Next Step

We sat down in circles, or rather squares with me sitting at Captain Quentin's right side and Kyle's left side, while Jonathan sat at Ryan's right side and Captain Quentin's left side. Just then, Della and Virgil also went inside the room, sitting next to each other on Ryan's left side, facing right in front of the door. As they sat down, Della commented on how Virgil had also installed the new power source with one lamp there.

"I do not expect you to also give this room a light source." Della said, as she pointed the power source on the table.

"There were still pretty much spare parts left, so I decided to make another out of them…" Virgil responded, smiling a bit to her.

As they stopped talking, Captain Quentin began our discussion by fast reviewing what we had done the night before. When he had finished by mentioning the large aircraft, he asked two questions to the whole group – about what we should do to it, and could we use it to pinpoint the location of the aliens' mothership which was probably somewhere on the middle of the great lake.

At first, no one spoke a word. But then, Jonathan mentioned two things about the large aircraft. He said that the aircraft was indeed facing towards the great lake when it landed, and that we could see a considerably further range of sights from inside its large cockpit, suggesting that if we were to take a look again from there we would have a good chance of at least finding where the mothership was.

Kyle was the next one to speak, responding Jonathan's words. She asked about how he could be so sure that we could see the mothership from inside the aircraft, as well as asking about how we would be able to do anything about it once we were able to locate it since it would be far from the lake shore that we would not be able to go near it. She asked the two questions with concerns that the aliens might as well be waiting for us to get to the aircraft and ambushes us there.

Hearing what Kyle had asked, I became the third person to speak there in order to respond to Kyle's questions. I started by saying that when Jonathan, Captain Quentin and I entered the aircraft and arrived at the cockpit, we noticed that we could see a completely clear sight of what was right in front of us through its large single windshield, and could even look at further distance from the windshield since it seemed like it had a focus enhancer.

Therefore, I told her that we could probably pinpoint the alien mothership location if we looked for it from inside the aircraft. As for her concerns regarding any possibilities for aliens' ambushes, there were no suggestions whatsoever that came to my mind yet except for the idea for few of us to go there again and find out for sure. However, I did not say it right away to Kyle as it could make her uncomfortable with the idea. Apparently, Jonathan was aware on what could be on my mind, as he suggested me to say it straight out to her.

"Travis, you may have to just say it to her right away. I do not think that any of us can suggest other options for now either…" Jonathan said to me, as he looked to Kyle's direction.

"If you say so…" I responded, before continuing, "I think we will have to go back to where we had left the aircraft, and looked again from inside the cockpit, while one or maybe two persons waited outside from the nearest building to watch us."

As I had expected, Kyle instantly responded by saying that she was burdened towards my suggestion. Not only her, Della also said that there had to be another way in doing it. I tried to convince them both by saying that we might in fact had no other options, since we would most likely have to do it before the aliens could make their next big move.

Instead, it only made them seemed to be more uncomfortable to the point that Della suggested that we should not be going back to the aircraft at all. Meanwhile, as our argument continued on, I glanced at Ryan and Virgil for a while and they seemed to also be discussing about something on their own. Shortly after that, Ryan interrupted us by saying his point of view.

"Um… sorry to interrupt…" he said, before continuing, "I just want to say that if we really are going back to the aircraft, then I want to go too…"

In almost an instant, both Kyle and Della batted their eyes to Ryan, glaring at him as if they expected him to agree with them. The atmosphere inside the room was already tense and uneasy just when the argument started to heat up, but apparently Ryan's words just made it worse.

Of course, Jonathan and Captain Quentin did not seem to be surprised at all by his decision, although I had to admit that it was to the least of my expectation that Virgil was also not budged by what Ryan had just said, he even did not seem to show any signs of surprised when he discussed something with Ryan that would perhaps be the only time when Ryan told anything about it to him. With the growing tension and uneasiness inside the room, Captain Quentin finally said his words perhaps attempting to calm the atmosphere a little.

"Son, I suggest that you better finish your words. You must have something else in your mind about the aircraft since you wanted to go and take a look at it again." Captain Quentin said, as he turned to Ryan.

Ryan turned silent for a little moment, before he nodded once and started to explain to everyone in the room. He started by saying that back at the night the invasion took place, he heard a faint splashing sound from the direction of the great lake very shortly after the blackout happened, most likely to be the mothership landing on the great lake. Therefore, he believed that if we were to assume where it had landed, it would not be too far from the shore since he could hear the splashing sound.

Another thing that he could also notice from the splash was about the rough estimation of the size of the mothership. He said that if the size was far bigger than the large aircraft, then it would also cause some sort of a tsunami in a tiny size along the road shore and maybe some areas of the first block of buildings.

However, when we were heading back to the first hideout from the museum by walking along the main road just beside the shore, there were no signs of any tsunami at all. Thus, it could suggest that the size of the mothership could be in fact not too far in ratio compared to the large aircraft.

Just then, something occurred to my mind. If the mothership was not that large in size, then we could actually infiltrate and destroy it from the inside. However, there would be two questions regarding it should we really opt to infiltrate – how would we go there with in order to approach it unnoticed, and when would be the best time for us to do it.

Another thing that also occurred in my head just after I thought about the first thing, was that should the size of the mothership was not that large, it would also likely meant that the numbers of the large aircrafts spread around the town may in fact be less in numbers than what I had assumed before, since those aircrafts must have went out from the mothership in the first place.

Right after that, I cut off Ryan's words as I apologized, before I explained my thoughts to the others there, as a conjunction with what Ryan had said, stressing that my point was should we were to get inside the mothership , it would be likely not as hard as we initially thought. Fortunately, the atmosphere began to calm down a little as I finished explaining it.

I let Ryan to continue again, and he began to explain that right after our retaliation the night before, they might be still preparing to dispatch a new kind of alien, at least according to Jonathan's instinct, and therefore the best time for us to go back to the aircraft was actually right at that time, in order to avoid any confrontations with the aliens. When he finished explaining, it felt like the atmosphere inside the room had calmed far better than before, as there were no more persons inside there with tensions shown in their eyes.

"Do we really have to get inside the mothership?" Della said again, as she sighed.

"Most likely, but we will not for sure until we could know its exact location…" I responded to her, reluctantly.

"When should we go?" Kyle said as response to me.

Unsure of what to answer, I turned to Jonathan in reflex, as he was usually the person who would decide on when to do what for the whole survivor group. I noticed that he seemed to be deep in thought about the plan, as he stared the floor in the center of our square with his sharp eyes. Apparently, the rest of the others also turned their attentions to him as they were all staring at his direction. Just then, he finally gave his answer.

"Travis, what time is it now?" Jonathan asked me, but without looking at my direction.

"It is… 09.51 a.m." I responded to him as I looked to my watch.

"It will take us around thirty minutes of walking from here to where the aircraft is, right?" he said, before continuing, "Then we will go at around eleven o'clock, so that we can arrive and see it for good at high noon."

With his decision stated, everyone seemed to agree with it. He also continued that he would also go, but he would be the one who guarded the rest of the others who would enter the aircraft by going to the rooftop of one of the nearest building there. I finally decided to also go back inside the aircraft cockpit, with the condition that Kyle was also to go together with me and Ryan.

At first she was extremely reluctant about it, however Ryan convinced that it would be better for her to see it for herself, so that she could fully understand the situation. After some moment of more considerations, she finally agreed to come along with us, and with that, Captain Quentin, Virgil, and Della would be the ones who stayed at the hideouts and guard them.

The final decision had been made, and so all of us headed outside the room and walked back to the third floor of the hideout, with me, Jonathan, Ryan, and Kyle started to prepare the necessary equipment. When we finished, we headed to the piles of food supplies that was then guarded by three survivors with various melee weapons.

I was amazed on how cooperative and organized the hideout was despite the fact that almost all of the people inside it were all newcomers, before I sat down on one spot of the platform, and ate my meal there together with Jonathan, Ryan, and Kyle without any of us saying any words.

Just when we had finished, Captain Quentin approached us and said that he would try to convince the other survivors to gather their ammunitions in one or two places. He explained that the aim was should any sudden attacks were to take place at the hideout, everyone with adequate firearms knew where to resupply their ammunition.

The four of us acknowledged it, and Captain Quentin went back to one of the corners of the platform and started to join the conversation of a group of survivors there, perhaps starting to ask them to gather their ammunitions already. We stood up, and waited for some more time until I acknowledged the time was already at the exact 11.00 a.m., before we carried our backpacks and bags and started to head back to the aircraft.