Unknown Threat

I had just been thinking how lucky we had been to not encounter a single storm ever since we had departed from the laboratory. Even the wildlife had been generally edible and not toxic. We were walking along the foothills of the Jura Mountains, coming near to the southern edge. At that point we heard the roar of thunder. We exchanged glances and immediately started surveying the surroundings for possible shelter.

“The sky is still clear, we should have enough time to find something, but I don’t see anything here. We could just set up a tarpaulin between some trees if we don’t manage to find an alternative,” Estelle said. A moment later the first storm clouds peeked around the side of the mountain. Thunder roared and lightning cracked to the ground.

“Run!” I screamed and we both took off towards the mountain. We needed to find a better shelter. At least some large rock we could hide under if there were no caves nearby. I kept glancing back as we ran. The storm clouds were low and travelled fast over the woods. In fact, they were going way too fast. In moments the entirety of the storm was visible. Surprisingly, there were in fact only a couple of clouds all together. “What the hell?” Despite the brightness of the day, I could see the glow coming from the clouds. Strangely it seemed like it wasn’t only Cherenkov blue, but also some kind of greenish hue.

Before I had the time to wander at that, the storm halted a moment, then continued in a different direction. It was coming straight towards us. I gaped at it. It was obvious to me that there was now way to escape it. We had perhaps a minute despite the great distance between us. “Estelle,” I shouted and grabbed her arm. I pulled us down under a tree and immediately began pulling out the tarpaulin, masks and any other protective gear we had. The strong wind guiding the storm reached us, so we had to hold on to the tarpaulin lest it be blown away. We were struggling to put on the gear and close any gaps in the tarpaulin, so that we were completely enclosed. It was a very uncomfortable position, but perhaps the small size of the storm meant that the makeshift shelter might just hold out long enough.

Just as I was about to stick my head into the safety of the little shelter, I saw a shadow in the distance. I strained to see, and I was at once certain that there was a person, or something very similar running ahead of the storm. Poor bastard. There was nothing he could do against the coming storm. I knew I should have just hidden and closed the final gap, but curiosity kept me entranced and I kept an opening just small enough to peek through. Estelle was squirming, but for once I completely ignored her. For some reason it was taking a while. Indeed, the storm itself had slowed down a significant amount. Still, it was more than enough to catch up to the running person at last. The clouds descended even further, until they barely cleared the higher of trees.

One moment the man was there, the next he was gone. A bright green beam came from the clouds. It was similar to lightning but for the strange colour. It made a small crater where the man had stood. The flash was followed by the cracking sound less than a second later. It was similar to thunder, but different in a way I could only describe as sinister. The beam disappeared almost immediately, but as it was, I could see a dark silhouette in the central part of the clouds, its origin. There was something inside. I was just about to finally hide and hoped I didn’t make a mess inside the shelter, when the stormy clouds climbed back higher into the sky before simply speeding away back in the direction they originally came from. In a couple of minutes there was nothing there to show the entire event had even taken place, except for the smouldering crater. Not even a drop of rain had reached our position.

A sharp pain brought me back. “What are you doing? Hide already for Heaven’s sake,” Estelle said as she jabbed fingers deep into my sides wherever she could find an opening. Instead I simply undid the tarpaulin and exited the shelter. Estelle’s head popped out a moment later. “Oh.” She looked around, trying to spot the storm.

“It left,” I said.

“I see,” she replied. I told her what I had seen. “Unnatural,” she whispered.

“Let’s check out the crater. It might not be anything, but I need to know.”

“Wait, what about toxicity?” Estelle said. We were still wearing masks and I waved a G-M counter that I was already holding. There was a possibility of other contamination than radioactive, but I didn’t think we would have a problem here, if we kept at least a little distance.

“It should be fine. Let’s go,” I said and slowly started going towards it. “But keep a little behind me just in case anyway,” I added as I turned around. I kept an eye on the counter and there was in fact a slight increase, but it was still just barely over background levels. In fact background levels were even higher in certain locations. The radiation danger wasn’t what stopped me.

“What is it?” Estelle said, her concern plain in her voice. I put a finger to my masked mouth. I gestured towards Estelle and she readied the coil gun. We had used it a couple of times on the way back, meaning that it had at most a handful of shots left in it.

I took another step and then it became more obvious. There was a moaning sound coming from the shrubbery. We exchanged glances with Estelle and moved apart to keep clear lines of sight. She held back while I advanced. As I came closer it was clear to me that it was a human. A dying man. With a counter in one hand and a gun in the other I closed in. There I saw the broken wretch.

“Estelle come,” I said. I hurried to the man’s side. In that state it was inconceivable for him to be of any danger to us. A step from him I saw that the level of radiation rose a little more, but it was still bearable for a short while at least. Still, no reason for us both to take that burden. “Don’t come too close. He’s hot.” With radiation there are 3 things to keep in mind: time, distance, and shielding. We had no access to the latter, so we had to do with the others.

Estelle gasped as she saw the condition of the man. He was missing one entire leg and most of the other. One of the arms as well. There were cuts along his body and the remaining limb was broken badly. It was a miracle he was even conscious at that point. He was moaning in pain and I figured he was delirious from the pain, but he noticed me. He tried lifting up his arm, but only cried out in pain.

“Come,” he said. I didn’t understand him until he repeated. His voice was so weak. I could feel my heart pounding as I came closer. “Did you see it? In cloud?” His sentences were short exhales.

“Yes, there was something inside,” I could still picture the silhouette in my mind.

“Aliens,” he managed to push out the single word. I looked at Estelle with my mouth open. The rumour had been around all this time, that the CERN incident in some way involved either supernatural or otherworldly actors. Everyone had thought about the possibilities, but in the open most would deny believing such nonsense. Yet witnessing what we just had and the testimony of a dying man made the prospects much more believable. Even with the incredible advances in technology that CERN managed to achieve in the last decades, leaving the rest of the world in the dung huts of the past, it was almost certain that they couldn’t produce that wild hunting storm.

“Atlas,” he said. “It’s there. The artefact.” Every word was harder for him than the last. He was coughing blood. His stumps were still bleeding. I moved away to at least stop the bleeding of those wounds. “Stop!” He rasped. “I’m dead. I gave my life for this. You have to get it. It’s in atlas too.” There was more and more energy behind his words as he spoke but as he finished the life simply left him. His head fell back and his chest stopped rising and falling. I stood and moved away. I was stunned from what I had heard, but there was no reason to be stunned and irradiated as well.

“Gaetan,” Estelle said. She seemed to be in as much of a loss for words as I was. We moved away and sat in silence for a while. “What do we do Gaetan?”

I didn’t know what the answer to that was. After a while I could only come up with “We continue back to the train. No matter what we do in the future, we need to do that first.” She nodded in agreement but kept staring into the distance. I decided to join her in the effort.