The cameraman put the camera down on the ground, with the lens facing the tree trunk. He stood up, weapon in hand, and charged out from his hiding place, screaming as he fired at the robots. But the machines didn’t shoot him. They grabbed him and tore his body apart. Hearing the sound of tearing flesh mixed with the soldier’s screams explained everything. Then, the video feed cut out.
You could almost smell the fear coming off the soldiers in the air. Even though their faces were covered by helmets, you could sense the terror that had spread through their veins. Keno tried to reassure them after the frightening video.
"Don’t be afraid," he said. "As you can see, those were unarmored soldiers without modern equipment like us. We will not meet the same fate. Now, I don’t want to see any cowards working with me. Only the brave have a place on this mission. Anyone who wants to go back to Atlantis and hide under his bed can leave now. Anyone who wants to stay, stay."
Everyone was silent; no one uttered a word. Keno said in a triumphant tone, "Just as I expected. Now, I will show you another recording we received, but it is just an audio recording of a soldier trying to send a message. It was choppy, and we only heard a little of it."
Keno played it, and everyone heard a crackling, scratching, and static sound before a voice appeared, speaking in a broken, unclear tone: "To... headquarters... we are in... what’s happening here isn’t as it... there’s something strange... the sky... the clouds... the trees, they’re... we are not on... there is a creature... the planet isn’t... this is bigger than... I’m going mad... we’ve been deceiv... a lie."
The recording ended, and everyone seemed confused by what they had heard. No one understood anything. Keno sighed. "As you can see, no one understood what he meant. The signal was weak, and we couldn’t make out what he was saying. But as you can see, we will soon find out what he meant, and we will reach where no one before us has been able to set foot. Now, let’s begin the mission. But before we start, everyone say the words, ’Automatic Rifle’."
All the soldiers began to say it. A weapon emerged from a small compartment in their backs. They took it and began to examine it. It was a black machine gun with fifty rounds inside, but they were not ordinary bullets; they were bullets that could penetrate iron due to their strength, hardness, and speed.
Keno continued, "There is also a pistol, grenades, some rockets, and other weapons. You can learn about them by saying ’Use Menu’."
After the soldiers had examined everything and explored the depths of the suit, Keno began to give them instructions to move. He walked at the front while the rest of the battalion followed him. He had asked them to be prepared and on constant alert.
The battalion began to venture into the strange forest, the likes of which they had never seen before. They saw flowers of all colors and strange shapes that their eyes had never before beheld: flowers with triangular yellow petals, others shaped like small, frightening creatures resembling miniature humans, and trees with blue leaves. Their leaves were compound, pinnate, and alternately arranged. They saw elongated leaflets with an acute apex of a light blue color, and flowers in tubular inflorescences of purple, white, and blue, while the branches boasted a joyous red hue. They found some trees that seemed familiar, but the unfamiliar far outweighed the familiar. They contemplated these strange sights in complete astonishment. Much had changed, and it seemed the climate had also changed, altering the characteristics and composition of the trees to produce this strange new flora.
The soldiers continued to examine the area, taking samples with them and admiring the delightful scenery. But they noticed the absence of any living creature nearby. Everything was completely still, and a cold, frightening silence covered the forest. On their way, they encountered another strange group of trees whose leaves were a startlingly bright red that dazzled the eye. Their branches were twisted in a strange way they had never seen before, like two ropes tied together, and their trunks were transparent, as if made of mercury. Follow current novels on 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵•𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮•𝓷𝓮𝓽
The soldiers were amazed by these strange sights. One of them approached the tree trunk and extended his hand to feel if this substance was solid or liquid. He placed his fingers on it gently, and everyone watched him with anticipation and fear. When he touched the trunk, it rippled like a drop of water falling into a calm, clear lake. Everyone who saw this was amazed, and they began to whisper among themselves about the composition of this strangely shaped tree. The soldier who had touched the trunk looked at his fingers and found that the strange substance had stuck to them. He began to play with it with his fingers, perhaps to discover something. He found that it had vanished completely when he rubbed it between his fingers. He extended his hand again, but this time he plunged it inside the trunk to get a larger amount of this substance. But it was a disaster. His hand got stuck when he put his entire palm inside the sticky substance. He tried to pull it out, but he couldn’t. He began to call for help, overcome with tension and panic. Some soldiers grabbed him and began to pull him with force, but he was stuck. And worse, the substance began to pull the rest of his hand inside. He was overcome with immense terror and began to beg the others to help him as quickly as possible. Everyone began to exert more effort to pull him out of this predicament, but nothing happened. The tree continued to pull him inside. One of the soldiers began to fire at the trunk, but the bullets were swallowed by this strange substance and disappeared completely inside it as if they had evaporated. Keno told everyone to stop.
"Stop, now!" he said in a warning tone. "I know how to get him out of this. Son, I want you to rub your hand against the substance with great force. Don’t try to pull it out; push it in and then out to create friction. That’s when you’ll be able to free your hand."
The soldier didn’t understand what the Captain was getting at, but he did as he was told. Suddenly, he felt something strange happening to his hand, though he couldn’t see it. It felt as if his hand was freeing itself from the suit, as if his bare skin was now touching the substance. All at once, his hand was released from the trunk. He was thrown backward and fell. His comrades lifted him up and checked to see if he was okay. They were shocked by what they saw. The metal part of the suit covering his right hand had disappeared. His hand was now bare, exposed to the open air, covered by nothing. The soldiers gasped. One of them said, "What in God’s name happened?! The suit’s metal evaporated right off his hand!"
Keno explained, "This is strange, indeed. But this substance is, in fact, antimatter!"