Sub Terra: Et Reditus

Thirty-Eight

Daniel

My arms were aching. My back was aching. My mind was aching. My heart... was aching. I was aching. That was all I could think of as I dug what was to be my father's final resting place. But what had given me a sliver of comfort was that this island, which neither he nor any of my companions had ever set foot on before, looked so much like his home. Like the island that he and my uncle Jack grew up on, thousands of miles away. Forever to be witness to the waves crashing against rocks at the beach, under a bright blue sky which spanned over the hot, arid land... he would've loved it.

I felt sweat dripping down my face like bullets. The work was tiring, made more apparent by the climate we were in, so I took a short break just after Nadia and Gus returned to the Airship to send out a distress signal.

"Daniel..." Caldwell said as he suddenly stopped digging Thiago's grave. "I don't think we can rest yet."

"Huh?" I said.

"Look up ahead."

I brought my head up and fixed my eyes forward, and there, I saw what he meant. A drove of figures, about a dozen in total, approached us at a walking pace. I slowly stood up and got closer to the doctor. 

"They're... not all humans." the doctor said. I saw this too. Some of them were towering and bulky, which made even the six-and-a-half foot tall Caldwell look normal-sized. More importantly, the skin of their heads, which weren't covered by their priest-like robes, were purple. Humans were walking side by side with Narkephians, wearing the same uniform. A couple of these figures were neither of them, but rather, both. They were something I thought was only a legend: human-Narkephian hybrids. Their skin had less of the signature purple pigment and they weren't as built as the full-blooded Narks, but they still were considerably over their fully human counterparts.

At that moment, Nadia had exited the Airship, with Gus following her a minute later. I grabbed my pistol and raised it in front of me at a fast speed. I put my finger on my trigger, but I didn't have the strength, metaphorically and physically, to pull it. Everything that happened to me in such a short time made me weak. My hands were trembling so much, I felt the pistol slip from my fingers.

One of the full-blooded Narks split off from the group and marched ahead of them.

"Please, do not shoot us! We come to you in peace!" he said. This was unexpected, but it wasn't what surprised me. What did was, instead of speaking in the Narks' normally almost unintelligible accent, he spoke in a southern English accent.

I looked at Caldwell, who was as confused as he was surprised.

"We're outnumbered, Daniel. It's best that we listen to them. I don't know what would happen if we don't comply."

I agreed with him. I withdrew my weapon and brought my hands up above my head, and the rest of my companions did the same.

"Do not worry. We won't harm you." he said as he stopped and sat on the ground about 15 feet in front of Dr. Caldwell and I.

"What are Narks still doing on Earth?" Caldwell asked as soon as he deemed it safe enough. "You should've left decades ago."

"I could ask you the same, but I can already tell what's been going on. You and your company are stranded on this island. We saw your craft landing and we decided to come investigate it."

"So I assume you are stranded here, too?" Caldwell asked in a diplomatic manner.

"Well, if you mean stranded from the rest of my people, yes. But if you're referring to me and my associates here with me... then no. We chose to stay here. We are... awaiting something. But that doesn't matter right now. You folks need help, don't you?"