The machine

   When the dust fell to the ground, the small group was able to see what was going on. In the dirt, some kind of machine had been found, buried not so deep under the ground in the middle of the forest. Trees had been cut down all around the area in order to make that area of the forest a secure perimeter for military and others to be able to unearth the strange machine from the ground. They had summoned experts from all over the place in other to help uncover the device and analyze its components and real nature.

 Several soldiers were ordered to wear special suits and then cleanup the surface of the machine. It was proven not to be radioactive, so it was safe to go near it. The small group that had witnessed the explosion that unearthed the machine was made up of top officials from most government agencies. They weren’t wearing their uniforms or anything that would let people know who they were or who they worked for. That was done in purpose, because of the attitudes of the people in the neighboring towns.

 They had seen trucks moving into the forest and there was noise that had never been heard. It was obvious something what was going on and the government had to come up with some excuse, so they told everyone it was all about a special session of training for most military personnel. The area was very cold and it was a challenging place to work in, so they could get away with such a lie. They could even use helicopters and other equipment, alleging that they were all taking part in the exercises.

 During the first week, they identified the components of the machine and discovered it was made of a very uncommon kind of titanium, which is a metal that does exist on Earth but it’s not as common as some people might think. Besides, the scientists found out the titanium had some aspects that would make people think the machine had been used in space. Some radiation was finally found, deep inside the machine, which could mean it used some kind of isotope to generate its own energy.

Still, it wasn’t dangerous to go near it. Military personnel took several pictures of it and they even recorded audio from it, as the strange device seemed to hum softly when everyone was silent. Of course, that was something difficult to achieve, but they were able to do some recordings at nights, when most of the soldiers left for the nearby base, where the fake military exercises were supposed to have their base on. The sound was supernatural, but calming and even beautiful to some of them. It was analyzed in various ways but no one was ever able to explain that hum, that strange song.

 They came up with various reasons for the machine to be there. The one that seemed to be more accepted was that the machine had been ejected in the upper atmosphere by some kind of probe or spy satellite operating in silence above everyone’s heads. It was probably some kind of device created to analyze the secret movements of other countries. It was difficult to explain the inner radiation, but other nations were conducting experiments in space, so maybe they had found out some way to convert Earth’s titanium.

 The idea that it could be a machine made by another country sparked controversy among top officials in the military and also from the government, who had been coming in larger numbers, as the second week of the operation ended. Not only they demanded for the machine to be transported somewhere else, some of they even advocated for the destruction of the device, as they thought it might still work as a spy machine, transmitting video and audio feeds to some unknown power that had done it all on purpose.

 Most of the things they said made no sense and were mostly rooted in silly fears and assumptions, but it was obvious they did have to transport the machine or do something with it. They couldn’t just stay there forever, as people would grow more and more suspecting of their activities. The machine was completely rooted out of the ground and it was analyzed if it could be moved without altering the core or any other element. Apparently, it could be done without any real danger.

 They ordered their largest helicopter to pick up the machine. When they attached to be lifted off during on a nocturnal flight, they discovered the machine was a lot lighter than it was supposed to be. The transportation was done in total silence and it the dark. In a matter of hours, the machine landed in an air base where a special hangar had been built to house the experts and the machine. The personnel assigned to the investigation were reduced, in order to avoid any leaks or intrusion by foreign powers.

 The investigation would go on for years. The machine would reveal some its secrets, as the one of its provenance, but never everything about what it could really do. It had been built as a spying device but there was much more to it. Something inside, in its core, told many more stories than the ones revealed.

 A small amount of researchers thought that the machine had been created with technology that was not widely available and required a very advanced set of knowledge and technology, that was non existent in the world, at least that’s what they had thought before encountering the humming machine on the ground.

The forest

   The eagle landed on top of the three, in a place towards the middle of the forest. The place was a sea of green; no piece of the ground below could be seen below the trees. However, it did not seem random that she chose the tallest tree to land and grab by the claws. She firmly stood there, looking around, waiting for something. She did not seem hungry or worried about any of her younglings. She just appeared to be making guard or something of the sort. She suddenly opened her wings and screamed.

 The sound out of her beak was not the one normally made by a bird, or an eagle or any kind of animal. The sound was strangely metallic, like something more suited to a robot or a creation of that sort. The bird made sounds for a while, alone in the middle of the forest. She then remained silent again, as clouds of storm formed above the forest. Shortly after, rain started washing away everything from the forest. The soil was turned into mud and the dead leaves were soon washed away by the flood.

 However, the forest was too silent during those moments. As the rain descended to the ground and then washed all the dirt away, no animals made sounds or tried to hide from the water. Actually, there was virtually no movement around the forest, except for the water rushing to the streams and the rivers. It was a land of trees deprived of any life. No bugs humming or squirrels hopping from one tree to the next. No other birds besides the eagle that still stood on top of the tree, being washed by the rain.

 The clouds above the forest where also strange, not moving or trembling as they produce thunder, but just frozen in the sky. The lights inside of them seemed artificial, as if they were being made on purpose instead of naturally produced by the ions and all of that. The colors of the clouds were also too perfect, too ideal. They seemed to be painted on top of the sky, not having that special quality of the real clouds, that thing when you feel you can grab them and you even imagine how soft they are.

 Moments later, the rain seemed to intensify. In some parts, tree bark began falling to the ground, revealing something very strange. The rain that was falling had changed somehow, not only being water but also something else. This did not yet affect the eagle, but she did seem uneasy, even as unnatural as she looked. More tree bark fell to the ground and also some flowers, which seemed to be eaten away by the water that carried them far away from the place where they had fallen. The floods were soon tainted in the colors of the flowers that came from all over the forest.

  Another color was also present in the water. Some red tint that was slowly carried away also permeated the water and the rivers down the valley. It was all brought down to a lake made up of still water. Many streams entered the lake and it was also surrounded by forest and large lumps of dead leaves that rotted fast, producing more color over the lake. There was a strange color in the water, towards the middle of the lake, something a bit lighter than the normal color of the water of a lake.

 More than that, something was moving in the middle of the lake. It looked like a fish but much larger than anything in existence in the world. The lake was far from any ocean or land populated by people, so it was very likely that creatures there would be very particular to that strange landscape, where clouds seemed to be painted on the sky and the rain was acidic and melted flowers into a mush of rainbow colors. The fish swimming in the middle of the pond was something not so abnormal after all.

 A thunder suddenly descended from the clouds and struck the fish in the middle of the lake. The light discharged illuminated the sides of the lake and made the fish more defined. After the electricity dissipated, the creature jumped out of the water, looking to have been activated in some way by the thunder. The creature started swimming around and around the lake, absorbing the remains of the flowers and the leaves that had accumulated on the edges of the lake. It ate like crazy, as if it had never eaten.

 The creatures splashed all around the lake. The eagle flew by the water and looked at the fish trashing and eating. It just moved it wings a couple of times and then disappeared somewhere on the other side of the forest, as if it had never been up there. Hours later, the fish finished eating and it submerged itself into the lake, again doing circles in the middle of the body of water. It had returned to that weird trance stage, which was apparently only one of two things it did in its strange life.

 That forest was certainly a very special place. There were signs all around that it hadn’t been created in a natural way, instead being constructed by something or someone. It was the creation of some mastermind with a plan that had never really been realized. The eagle, the clouds, the fish creature and the acidic rain could not be everything that strange place had to offer. Something else had yet to be revealed. Maybe a reason for the place’s existence or maybe the face of the creatures that had imitated the most natural place on Earth. Someone had planned something but had never finished it.

 Maybe, just maybe, they were still missing something to properly finish their project.

Green cave

   The cave was covered in the same slimy kind of substance we had seen in the trail going up the mountain. It was very sticky and had a dark color to it, which we had identified as a very deep green. Someone argued that, maybe, the creatures inside the mountain used that goo to attack predators and be able to escape. Another person said it was very likely that they were the predators and that they used the substance to actively hunt for food. The third opinion was simpler but more confusing: the substance could be blood.

 In trees, sap is green and it acts, in a very basic way, as the blood of a tree. But it never gets that thick or dark. Susan, who was the botanist in the expedition, analyzed a sample and assured everyone that green thing was not sap from any tree she had ever seen or that had ever been recorded by any human being. It did pass some of the tests that Marcus, a biologist, did for several other animals we had found earlier in our journey through the mountains. So it was blood but it was impossible to know why it was all over the place.

 Maybe they did use it as a weapon, like those lizards in the desert that squirt blood in order to scare their enemies. Something like that could be at play with these creatures, which we hadn’t had the opportunity to actually see with our own two eyes. Some of the tribes living around the mountains talked to us about creatures living under the mountains, creatures that would come at night into the town and kidnap children. We didn’t believe that story but it was repeated to us in various occasions.

 Alex and Richard stood at the entrance of the cave. They were geologists and wanted to have time to analyze the mountain itself so they asked to stay there as lookouts if anything went wrong. It wouldn’t have been a very smart idea if we would all enter the cave at the same time. Samantha and Sergei were the last two to enter the cave, just after I get stepped on a rather large mound of the gooey substance. I had to be helped by Sergei and Marcus in order to get my foot out of there. It was very scary for a minute.

 The cave was rather large and our voices seemed to run wild inside, so we decided to stop talking in order not to scare any potential new findings. We had helmets with soft lights on them and all the equipment necessary if we had needed to go down a very dangerous wall or even jump over a crevasse. It was normal for such cavernous systems to have different features that would play as obstacles for groups of people such as ourselves. But, strangely, after walking for twenty minutes, we realized that the cave wasn’t shrinking in any way, rather it was descending gently but steadily.

 I think we all thought the exact same thing at the same time: whatever creatures inhabited this world; they had modeled the cave in order to accommodate them and not the other way around. What that meant was that the creatures had to be able to use tools of some sort and had various abilities to carve stone. They would even be able to do a certain degree of calculations, which was only possible if they’re brain was evolved enough. We weren’t looking for some little creatures in the dark.

 After another twenty minutes, we finally arrived at a larger chamber. The ceiling on it was huge, covered in what seemed to be bats in a deep slumber. We fixed our lights in order not to disturb them and kept on walking until we weren’t able to. The ground stopped dead in the middle of the room to give way to a rather large body of water. The liquid look as gooey as the green substance in the entrance. We actually looked around for it but realized there were no traces of it in that chamber. There had to be a reason why.

 Samantha and Marcus walked and kneeled in front of the body of water, as Susan walked closer to me. It was obvious that, as a botanist, she had not being in such a situation before. She wasn’t hyperventilating or anything, but she was clearly not comfortable being in the underside of a mountain. Sergei stood right behind us, looking at the path we had used to come down to the chamber. It looked like he had heard something but, when I asked, he said it was nothing and tried to seem unperturbed, which he failed at.

Samantha filled three large syringes with water from the pond and Marcus grabbed some in his hands. He first smelled it, very thoroughly, and then drank some, to everyone’s amazement. But none of us said a single word, because we didn’t want to wake up the whole bat infested roof. When Marcus stood up, we asked in a whisper if there was anything wrong with it and he just did a negative movement of his head to answer. We all went back to breathing normally then. For a second, it had been very scary.

 However, we had failed to notice that Sergei was looking at the path we had come down through and there was something wrong with it. Sergei did not answer so I turned him around with one hand. His face was livid, whiter than ever, blood completely drained from his features. He was breathing heavily and it was only when I saw what he had seen that I realized why he was behaving in such a strange way. Out of nowhere, a rock had been put to block the path. We were trapped in the chamber. It was a trap and we had fallen into it without even a glimpse of doubt.

I wanted to tell them what was going on but then the water from the pond started making sounds, as if it was boiling. But that did not make sense. We only had time to look at each other once more before we saw something coming out of the water and then our lights failed and the bats flew over our heads, filling the place with confusion. Then, we felt them and it all went black.

Sound, lights, action.

  There seemed to be no change in the weather. The wind continued to howl all night, not stopping for a moment. Luckily, there was a very large trunk filled with various blankets and pillows that helped pass the night without freezing on the spot. Being give people inside a tiny cabin was not something very comfortable but it was the only place they had found to spend some time away from the horrible storm outside. They didn’t say a word all night, trying to preserve their energy.

 The next day, the storm was still on full swing but they just couldn’t stay there the whole weekend. They had to leave right then in order to get home as soon as possible. They were there, on the mountain, for only a weekend and they had already wasted a whole day on that cabin in the middle of nowhere. However, some stated that maybe it would have been a better idea to just stay put, because sooner or late the rest of their friends would come for them, or maybe their families or someone that had seen them near the lake.

 The point made sense so they tried to discuss it but it only generated a silly argument related to food and heat, so nothing was really solved. After an entire hour of not deciding anything, Richard who was the oldest, decided he would go out and try to reach the lake. If he failed, he would come back to the cabin. But he thought they had to do something instead of staying there. No one said a word but the other four members of the party left behind him, covering their body as much as they could.

 The storm seemed to get stronger about five minutes after they had put one foot outside. With signs and screams, they decided to tie a rope around everyone, in order no to get lost. Richard was the first one in line and Theresa, the youngest, was the last one. She kept looking back but it was impossible to see anything. It was the middle of the day, they were sure of that, but no sunlight managed to get to the forest floor. The wind and snow made it impossible to open one’s eyes for very long.

 However, they kept on walking. Words couldn’t be heard anymore, even if the person yelled with all their might. So they just kept walking and walking, hoping they would soon get to the lake. After maybe forty minutes of traversing the storm, with legs and arms tired, they finally reached some sort of housing. The lights inside were off. Richard found the door and he soon discovered what Theresa had realized just seconds before going in. That building was the very same cabin they had just came out of, hours earlier. They had been moving in a circle.

 Of course, going back out was not really an option. Not only because it was extremely dangerous weather but also because the same thing would happen again. The snow and the wind would blind them once more into heading back to their departing point. There was no way to go through that again. Besides, their watches clearly stated night had fallen a short while ago and going out in the darkness, on a stormy night, seemed to be even a worse idea than the one they had before.

 They took out the blankets again and covered themselves with them. Mark and Daniel looked for food everywhere but the only thing they were able to find was a stale pack of cookies and some sour milk in a small crate, possibly some kind of refrigerator. Theresa was shaking violently. So much so that Caroline had to check her pulse and blood pressure by hand. She was clearly not well, as her skin had slowly turned blue and her lips seemed to have been covered in a thin layer of blackness.

 Everyone then gathered around Theresa and tried different things they knew, in order to get her blood pressure higher. They covered her with all the blankets and pillows, sat around her on the bed and gave her soft massages in arms and legs. However, the young woman started to shake violently. It was a very scary sight, as she seemed to be behaving in a way they had never seen. She would yell, scream profanities and then shake violently again. It was a very disturbing scene, in such a small cabin.

 She convulses some more and then stopped moving. Caroline checked on her again. Theresa had just died, in front of them all, for causes that were impossible to determine at the time. Caroline tried to explain it by blaming the cold temperatures and lack of food, but no one really paid attention to her. The men thought, without speaking to each other, that what just happened to Theresa had something to do with them going out of the cabin only to come back because of the storm.

 Mark had a few tears on his face when he said they should cover her body well or do something, because human bodies tend to decompose pretty fast. He said he had seen some documentary when it was stated it was best to bury a body as soon as it died for fear of certain diseases. Richard interrupted him, saying it was pretty obvious they couldn’t do that. The freezing temperatures could affect them too if they stayed outside for too long. Everyone looked at Theresa and hoped to be out of that place soon. Something they felt made them uneasy about the whole thing.

 Time passed and soon it was past midnight. The wind didn’t seem to be stopping soon, as it howled like a dying wolf outside the window. Caroline tried to look outside. She would have wanted to see some miraculous sign outside like a light or the face of someone she knew. Maybe rescue workers or even a helicopter. But the night was pitch black and the only source of light came from the lantern that Richard had brought in his bad. No one else had thought of it.

 Some time later, everyone was sleeping. Mark still had traces of tears on his face and Caroline had fallen asleep by the window, maybe the coldest place in the whole cabin. Richard was sleeping by the door, in a weird crouching position that seemed to be very uncomfortable. Daniel was the only one that had properly sat down and covered himself with one of the blankets. After all, Theresa wouldn’t need them anymore. And curiously enough, he was the one to wake up by the sound.

 A very powerful noise coming from the outside. At first, it was as if a gigantic creature was roaring wildly, but by the time Daniel woke up, the sound didn’t seemed to be that natural anymore. It was now something out of some horrible machine, causing an uproar that made the window shake and the body of their deceased companion fall from the bed. Daniel was close to the window when all the glasses broke and they got stuck on his face, making him bleed and scream to his death.

 It was him who woke up the others from their deep sleep. Caroline screamed when she saw Daniel bleeding on the floor. She had been close to the same faith but luckily she had leaned back in her sleep. Richard took her by the hand and raised Mark from the floor. He kicked the door open and started running, with the other two by his side. The forest was not in darkness anymore. It was now bright because of some very powerful lights that seemed to flood everything on sight.

 They ran away from the light as fast as they could but the snow was very difficult to go through. After a while, they grew tired and the lights finally disappeared, leaving in the air a scent that reminded them of their worst fears, of every single thing they hated.

 When they stopped, the light turned on again, more powerful than ever. They didn’t get to know if that was a weapon or some other kind of technology. The last thing they knew was that their fate was sealed and that they had not been in their very own world for a long time.