Codename Alpha

Chapter 12

"Well, let's get moving. We've got more hiking to do." Jack shouted out an intentionally tired-sounding cheer.

We continued up the rest of the slope without any more trouble. After a few minutes of uncomfortable walking, I reached the top, and stopped to take a look at the perimeter. There were some tall hedges at the other end of the field, with the roofs of a couple houses visible. "Alright, we're clear," I announced, stepping up and leaning against one of the lattice posts to catch my breath.

Jack and Vance both climbed up after. Jack sat down next to me, and Vance turned around to look at where we had just come from.

"Wow," she said. "Pretty good vantage point."

"That's why I chose it," I said, setting the backpack on the ground. "Hopefully there's a forest or something we can hide in for a few days. Preferably, in the other direction from where we came..." I pulled the binoculars out. The lens caps had already been taken off.

I first surveyed the city down below, mainly just to check if the lenses had been shattered. Thankfully, they had not. I was able to see part of the river down below where it split off into a seperate cargo port, where a large ship was currently docked, and containers unloaded. Alien dock workers were scrambling about, doing their jobs, presumably like they did every day, completely unaware of the fact that, from their perspective, an alien was currently watching them. That fact still sent a shiver down my spine when I thought about it.

I turned to the left, opposite of the city. There, I was able to see that the hill sloped downwards to where here was a thick-looking forest, surrounded by farm fields. "Looks like there's a forest, around maybe... one and a half or so kilometers out."

"Are we going camping now?" Vance asked. "Uh, no offense intended, sir."

"None taken, and... well, yes. We'll head deep into that forest and then wait for nighttime, and get some actual sleep too." I put the binoculars back and then realized how thirsty I was. The last time I drank any water was during preflight checks on the shuttlecraft. The same went for any actual food, except it had to have been at least a day since I had least eaten. "I suggest we all drink some water while we're here, also," I added."

"We need to figure out a ration schedule. We should have around a week's worth of water on each of us, which is 28 liters. It's actually what is mostly causing these things to be so damn heavy," Vance said.

I nodded in agreement. The backpacks were ridiculously heavy. Granted, they weren't to be taken too far from wherever the shuttle crashed. Procedure dictated that whenever a shuttle crashed, it's crew was to remain at the crash site unless there was evidence a water source was nearby.

"We can lower our water intake to 3.5 liters per day if we're rationing. So let's try to limit little breaks like this to around 1 liter at a time. However, if we do find a water source, and the filter is able to clean it up, go crazy."

I set down my pack and unzipped the first pocket, revealing several blue rectangular containers, each marked with 'WATER 4l.' I pulled the first out, as well as the clear cup used to drink it with, that had markings as to exactly how much was in the cup. I poured a single liter into the cup and then drank it quickly.

Jack and Vance did the same. After a few seconds where nobody spoke, I screwed the cap back on the water container and put both it and the cup back, then zipping the pack up and putting it back on.

"Let's get ready to go. This place is kinda public and I don't want to stay here for too long."

"Right," Vance said, then sighing. "I'm just now realizing how tired I am... too much crap has happened today, y'know?"

"I'm already ready to clock out for the whole week. Or maybe retire. I think discovering aliens would be a pretty good high note, no?"

Before long, we were off, and heading down the hill towards the forest. The sun was beginning to reach the top of the sky, and the feeling of warmth that it was giving off had gotten old long ago. I was noticing that as we went along, the hill was becoming less of a slope, and flatter. Granted, it wasn't enough to build anything stable on, but down at the bottom to the right was a fairly large town, and there were some houses on upper levels. It wasn't anything that was going to stop us from getting to the forest, merely something to consider as we went along.