IV. DESCENT
Alex groggily opened his eyes.
I’m alive! he thought.
He squinted at the soft green glow of Cumulus III’s onboard monitor. There’s nothing on the screen aside from strings of unintelligible computer codes.
Alex blinked, trying to see around the dimly-lit confines of his cockpit. He sensed that there was something wrong with his vision. But then he realized that he was suspended upside-down, pinned to his seat by the shoulder guards. Alex tried to move, but he was stopped by the searing pain that hefelt around his chest. He slowly fumbled around the armrests, and then he clicked a button that released him from his seat. His body crumpled helmet-first against the glass-shield, intensifying the shooting pain from his broken ribs.
Alex let out a cry of pain. He then tried the manual controls of Cumulus III. They are not working. He then pulled open a small panel by the side wall of the cockpit, revealing blue, red and green buttons. Alex pushed the red one. The underside of the hovercraft opened around the cockpit area.
Alex crawled out of the opening with utmost care. As he got to his feet, he felt the ground slightly sink under his weight. He looked around.
There is no doubt that he is on the Sponge Mesa.
That provided an explanation on why he is still alive and why Cumulus III wasnot dashed to pieces. The Sponge Mesa was named thus because of the peculiar type of soil that composes it. The ‘soil’, according to scientists, is not actually soil;the material even appeared to be cellular in its composition. In theory, the whole mesa is a body part of the Great ReTarcan, protruding from the planet’s layers.
Whatever it is, Alex Skinner thanked the Sponge Mesa for saving his life.
He surveyed the hovercraft’s damage. The right engine has beentorn off completely; probably destroyed by the impact. Alex looked around, and saw no signs of the right engine’s whereabouts.
“Doesn’t matter,” he said, for he knew that he cannot fix Cumulus III without the necessary materials.
Even with the broken ribs, Alex still managedto turn the hovercraft to its side. Alex opened its hatch, then started taking out the things he needed: his gun, a packet of food-pills, an emergency oxygen supply, and a small water tank. He tore a small patch of cushion from the seat, and then tied it around his damaged ribs with several lengths of bandage from his first-aid kit.
He checked: his wrist-computer is still functional. It can tap into the computer system of A.S. Hydra to acquire the information that Alex needed. He spoke of a few command codes until his wrist-computer displayed a holographic diagram of ReTarc. To his surprise, his location is very close the metropolitan region. He ran towards South, and, after reaching the edge, smiled.
Five miles from the cliff edge is the labyrinthine network of the inner walls of the Metropolis.
“There’s gonna be a long walk ahead, Captain Skinner!” Alex exclaimed.
Alex’s problem is that he was still a good two hundred meters from the ground. The whole stretch of the mesa, as far as he can tell, plummets into steep, vertical cliff-faces. Climbing down is not an option, for the cliff face offered no hand-and footholds.
Alex came up with an idea. He pressed the green button from the panel he opened earlier. The seat came off the floor.
He dragged the pilot’s seat by the cliff edge. He then attached his oxygen and water tanks at the back of the seat. He secured his gun, and then himself to the seat, locking the shoulder guard a little too loose so as not to hurt his ribs. He opened a small enclosure on one of the armrests, causing a small screen to suddenly come to life. After keying-in commands on the touch screen, the seat transformed into EJECT STATUS, with thrusters protruding from its undersides. An initial rocket-burst sent the seat flying upwards to a certain altitude; it then shifted to its landing thrusters. The seat slowly descended to the ground below.
“Bye Cumulus,” Alex whispered. “I’m gonnamiss you.”
At the foot of the cliff, Alex made use of the seat’s forward thrusters until it ran out of power. That maneuver covered one and a half miles. Now, Alex only had to walk for about four miles before reaching the outer walls of the Metropolis.
The walk would have been easy, if not for the storm.
