A technomancer’s journey in an apocalyptic world - Chapter 144

Ylerias peered down towards the main hangar as she whispered with a frown, “I can easily spot a good number of ghouls in there but not the Ghast.”

Xuelong gave a huff of displeasure as she spoke, “Me too, so how should we deal with them? I would have voted for bombardment, but…”

Michalina sighed as she spoke, “There is a chance that we might end up blowing ourselves sky high.”

Before either of them could speak, Ryan’s voice chimed in from the radio, “I vote for fighting against them from a safe distance.”

Michalina sighed as she spoke, “I agree with my brother, though can anyone of you set something up that can provide warning if something sneaks up on us from behind.”

Siora quickly erected a barrier with proximity alert while Ylerias spoke out loud, “Micha, unlike us, you are not so good with seeing the dark, do you need us to illuminate the Main deck.”

Michalina gave a curt nod as she looked down at the endless darkness that shrouded the main deck.

‘The eyes of those two are something else even with the help of the night vision something I would not be able to pierce through the darkness, and as for thermal-vision, it would be futile as it will only show the creatures and not the explosive stuff near it.’

The entire main deck bathed in light courtesy of the two Apostles, and the light was so bright that it looked as if someone had ripped off the deck and welcomed the sunlight.

Meanwhile, back inside the aircraft, Ryan felt bored and would have loved to go down inside the ship then kill a ghoul or two, but unfortunately, he had to spend time hovering in the air a fair distance away from the carrier.

“Your Holiness, inside the tall structure I see some movement.”

Ryan’s boredness disappeared as he quickly spoke, “Can you please point me towards the exact spot?”

“The window just below the roof.”

Ryan tried to find the cause of the movement but, because of the light reflecting from the windows, he could not spot anything, and as such, Ryan willed the plane to move towards the island while he radioed to Michalina.

“Hey Micha is there anyone from you group inside the island.”

The radio crackled as Michalina’s voice came to his ears, “None of us are inside the Island, do you need anything, Ryan?”

Meanwhile, back inside the carrier, it was a one-sided slaughter as under the combined might of the group the ghouls stood no chance.

Ryan’s question started ringing alarms inside Michalina’s head as she quickly asked back, “Why are you asking that, Ryan?”

“Shakidra said she spott… Oh Shit,…. Kkkzzzttt.”

With that, the radio went silent except for static noises causing Michalina’s heart to jump out of her throat, especially when a large boom came to their ears.

Suddenly Ryan’s voice once again came to their ears, “We are under heavy assault by weird-looking creatures, there are near about a hundred such creature with a ghast leading them.”

Michalina’s group did not need to be told twice as they dashed towards the deck to provide support.

Back with Ryan, he had moved his plane a bit closer to the island to get a better view only for the windows of the flight controlling area of the island exploded as an enormous figure jumped out of it.

The figure was not alone, as in its rather large hands it held a pair of ghouls, the ghast then flung the ghouls towards Ryan while the aircraft showing incredible agility evaded the ghouls.

While Rya was busy dodging Shakidra quickly moved to the turret gunner seat, and having occupied the seat, she opened fire at the creature.

In another place and another time, Ryan would have gawked at the agility that Shakidra displayed to move towards the gunner seat from the radio controller’s while the plane was doing its roll and turns, but Ryan was busy elsewhere.

‘From where did these creatures crawl out? So many of them, if I pull away they will target my sister’s group not only that I do not know how many are hidden within the carrier itself, they would be overrun and die.’

Meanwhile, Shakidra had already turned the turret on and then aimed the turret at the creature before Shakidra fired the first shot towards the Ghast thereby robbing it of its arms in a small explosion.

The Ghast tried to run away only to be torn to shreds by Shakidra, who having accomplished her objective of killing the ghast, focused fire on the group of Ghouls.

Michalina, along with the fellow members of her group had tried hard to reach the deck, but they stopped in their tracks as they were forced to fight a tsunami of Ghouls that were racing down to escape from being slaughtered by Shakidra.

“Damn it, there are too many, Xuelong block the path, Siora confuse them, Michalina you are with me.”

Xuelong did not hesitate, as a runic circle formed in front of her and a wall made of ice propped up, which narrowed down the corridor considerably.

While Xuelong narrowed down the corridor while Siora raised her hand as another runic circle formed followed by a flash of light and the Ghouls suddenly resembled a drunken man who was having a problem with walking as well as finding the right direction.

While Ylerias and Michalina were making short work out of them, Shakidra had dealt a devastating blow on the ghouls, thereby reducing them significantly.

NHASC-001 landed on the flight deck, as Shakidra and a giddy Ryan deboarded from it.

Ylerias gained an amused look on her face as she spoke, “You look incredibly excited.”

“Of course, why can I not be when I am standing on such a big carrier.”, Ryan’s giddiness vanished as he spoke with a frown, “So how should we proceed?”

Xuelong frowned in contemplation before she replied to Ryan, “We can divide into groups, one will search the ship to see if they can find anything useful, while one will accompany Ryan while he does his job.”

Michalina nodded as she spoke, “That is the sound idea, and if possible I would like to find the Logbook of this ship as well any journal or anything kept by the sailors of this ship.”

Ylerias nodded in agreement as she spoke, “That is a sound idea, who knows what we might learn from them.”

With the seal of approval in place, they were ready to form groups and begin their work but came to a stop upon Siora’s intervention.

“Your Holinesses, the sun is almost down the horizon as such I think we should wait till dawn.”

Ylerias frowned as she spoke, “You are right Siora, we should postpone that for today, but we have another issue to deal with that cannot be postponed.”

Xuelong nodded in agreement as her eyes fell on the carnage that they had caused a few minutes prior as she spoke, “Let us deal with them up fast.”

The next day at the crack of dawn, Ryan ventured forth accompanied by Siora as they descended into the depths of the carrier while Michalina and Ylerias made their way up the island.

“Is something wrong your highness?”

With a groan, Ryan replied to Siora, “Nothing, just that I cannot seem to get rid of that horrible smell it seems to have stuck on my nose.”

Siora grimaced as she spoke, “Mine too, never did I think that ghouls would smell so bad when it is burnt, it was such a sickening feeling.”

Meanwhile, back with Michalina and Ylerias, Michalina was frustrated by the sight of the bridge, which looked like a war had been fought there from seeing the damaged consoles of the bridge, but the reason for the frustration was the fact that the ship used a Digital Logbook.

“It is useless with Digital Logbook, we will not learn anything.”

“Then we should search thoroughly, and then maybe we might stumble upon something.”

Michalina nodded at Ylerias’s suggestion as she spoke, “You are right we should search thoroughly and who knows we might find something.”

With renewed vigour, the duo moved forward tearing through the bridge and moving towards the officers’ quarters, and it was there inside one of the rooms that Ylerias drew Michalina’s attention towards a diary she had stumbled upon.

“Micha look at this, I have found a diary, though the last few pages are ineligible due to being drenched in blood.”

Michalina was quickly by her side as she skimmed through the diary before she spoke with a large grin on her face, “This is an amazing find, the diary of the XO.”

Ylerias frowned as she spoke, “What is an XO?”

“Ah, an XO you can say the person with the highest authority in a ship just after the Captain, his second in command to be precise.”

“I see then the diary would be somewhat valuable, but why are you searching for them? I doubt they would be of much use.”

“Maybe not but can you please tell me what is this thing?”

Ylerias narrowed her eyes as she studied the picture of a creature that was drawn on one of the pages of the diary, the creature itself looked like an orangutan but with a large conch shell as its head with two eyes peering from the gaps.

Ylerias shook her head as she spoke, “I have no idea.”

Michalina smiled at her as she spoke, “That is one of the reasons I am searching for the logbooks and diaries.”

“I see, such strange creatures that we know nothing about.”

Michalina nodded as she spoke, “But at the same time just thing of the creatures that are too small to be seen through naked eyes, what kind of changes they might have gone through.”

Ylerias visibly shivered at the thought of the various microscopic creatures that have undergone some form of mutation.

A familiar static sound followed by a familiar voice came to their ears, “Can you all come down to the hangar deck there is something that I want to show you.”

The duo quickly made their way towards the hangar deck, and on the way down, they met up with Xuelong and Shakidra.

Upon reaching the destination, they saw Ryan and Siora standing in front of a small cage with something trapped inside it.

“What did you wanted to show us bro?”

Ryan pointed at the small cage as he spoke, “Just take a look and tell me what you think about it.”

At his words, the new arrivals all approached the cage, and when they looked inside it, they were shocked to see a rather cute toddler looking at them with his wide doe-like eyes.

Michalina looked at the toddler with disbelief on her face as she spoke, “You found a child and kept it locked in a cage?” before her face went blank as she continued to speak, “Wait a minute, how did a toddler survive here? What is this thing?”

Ryan shrugged as he spoke, “I do not know what it is, but it nearly bit Siora’s head off, as such I kept it trapped inside a cage.”

Ylerias stared at the creature that could very well pass for a human child, a very cute looking human child as she spoke with disbelief, “It is hard to believe that this child almost bit off Siora’s head off.”

Ryan smirked at her as she spoke, “Then why don’t you try getting  closer.”

A curious Ylerias moved closer to the cage only for the toddler to lunge towards her, his face morphing into a ghastly one, with impossible long jaws that were split at the centre with long forked tongue and long razor-sharp teeth, even the hand seemed to elongate as long nails appeared from its fingers.

Ylerias jumped back as she spoke in a whisper, “What is that thing?”

Ryan shrugged as he spoke, “No idea, but whatever it is, it is dangerous, and it seems we have more of them as such I have blocked the passage to the lower level.”

Xuelong rubbed the bridge of her nose in exasperation before she spoke, “That is troubling, after all the shenanigans yesterday we never really went to the lower floors.”

Shakidra looked at the creature before she spoke with a frown, “Is it possible for me to study it.”

Xuelong shrugged as she replied to Shakidra, “Feel free to do so.”

Ryan sighed as he spoke, “Since that is settled, I hope you will not mind lending me a hand in clearing the lower floors.”

His words granted him a couple of nods as he led them towards the blocked passage.