Both George Masters and Tyler had been frozen from the frightful experience that they had been through, frozen, exhausted and covered in sweat from the stress of their incredible journey through `The Twilight Zone `. Now though in this strange land the sun quickly warmed them, and the sun beating down on them was certainly not the one that they had taken off in, on that cool May morning, a lifetime ago. It must have been in the nineties or beyond, here in this surreal world, so Tyler stripped of his jacket and George Masters nodded approvingly
“Yes I think a little informality will be just the thing for the moment Tyler.”
Masters looked around at the long grass, and then the jungle beyond, before taking off his old blue and white striped squadron tie from his time in the Royal Air Force, and then unbuttoning his shirt. He then turned back and took a moment to look at his Miles Finch aircraft. It had got them safely through hell and down onto Terra Firma before dying, for Masters had always thought of his plane as a living thing, something that he loved, and he was sure it loved him in return, in its own way. Now, after getting them through that terrible flight, it would fly no more. With a sigh Masters turned to Tyler.
“You know Tyler, I really thought that we were going to die when that storm hit us, just to be here on the ground is a miracle in itself, someone up there is certainly looking after us.” Masters would soon recall these words and laugh.
“I sure hope that you are right George, though personally I think he could do better.” Masters smiled at Tyler`s ungrateful remark to the lords of the universe.
“Well what way do we go from here Tyler?" Masters asked looking around at the all-encompassing greenery. Tyler merely shrugged his shoulders.
“I don`t know George, all ways look bad from where I`m standing right now, maybe we are dead and this is some ones pathetic idea of paradise.”
Maybe Tyler should have been a little bit more grateful to whomever or whatever had brought them safely down, at least a little grateful to Masters and for his skills as a pilot, but instead his cries of lament filled the forest. Tyler looked about them once again, expecting at any moment to see the men in white coats coming to take them away, for surely Tyler thought, if he was not dead then he must be stark staring mad. A scowl covered his face as he looked afresh at the meadow, and then the jungle. One thing was certain this was not his idea of paradise, to him paradise was the Seychelles, warm seas to swim in, white sands to walk along, the luxury hotel to rest up in, this was not a holiday island it was more like purgatory, and he told Masters so, Masters looked across at him and smiled.
“ I understand how you feel Tyler, you haven`t been through the stress of battle as I have when I flew above the desert sands of Iraq, even though that was a lifetime ago I still remember it, and that was far worse than this, there people were firing at you.” Masters looked at Tyler and Tyler could hear the unsaid words that must be going through Masters mind, that of the two of them, Masters would be the man to see them through whatever fate had in store for them. Well that was fine by Tyler, as long as someone saw them through this ordeal.
Masters glanced up at the sky above, the clouds were scurrying across the heavens, with at least the promise of offering them some protection against the stifling heat of this land, and the wind bringing them was already helping to cool them, for they were now feeling the heat as it baked them. This was in direct contrast to a few minutes earlier when they had welcomed the sun after being frozen by their nightmare journey. Tyler meanwhile stood staring at the jungle in the final desperate hope that it would change back into the world that they had left only a short time ago, it didn`t. Masters put his hand on Tyler`s shoulder and pointed towards a rough meandering track to their right.
“Well this way seems as good as any Tyler, come on, who knows maybe there is a luxury hotel just around the bend, and anyway I am very thirsty all of a sudden, as I suspect are you, so we need to find some water, and maybe something to eat.” Masters led the way towards the trees which seemed to open up invitingly, unveiling a narrow track that led them into the dark foreboding interior that was the jungle.
“Well if there is a hotel nearby George, then either they are all deaf, or they must be very sound sleepers.” Tyler silently added that inside that jungle there could well be something that was looking for something to eat as well.
With that Tyler followed Masters towards the jungle, stopping at the entrance to this world of trees with the feeling that maybe he should proceed no further. Tyler looked nervously back at the meadow which seemed so bright, almost comforting in contrast to the gloom within the jungle. He was hoping to see another way that was not so daunting, but the tall grass prevented him from seeing much, and anyway he remembered an old film he had seen long ago, and the people who had chosen the tall grass had all died.
“OK George I am coming." Tyler called, and their next part in this adventure had begun.
The jungle had closed in around them, but even so for a while the going was comparatively easy as they followed an animal trail that meandered through the trees and ferns of this very green world. The trees of this land stretched up and up towards the sky, Tyler had never seen such tall trees except in National Geographic programs on television. If there was a tourist hotel nearby then these lords of the earth would certainly be one of the attractions, for they were indeed lords of their realm, a realm that unfortunately seemed to stretch forever before them. After ten minutes or so the trail got narrower and narrower until it disappeared altogether, and they now had to force their way through the ever thickening jungle. The gloom under the immense trees reinforced the insane situation that now encompassed the two men. In no time their clothes were being ripped and torn by the thorns and branches of this inhospitable land, their hands, bodies and faces were also being scratched and were showing signs of bleeding. Their spirits were dropping fast until they were at an all-time low that was matched only by the gloom of the jungle, but they finally reached a small clearing. Here the sun broke through to rule for a while after an old king had fallen, and in turn Masters dropped to the ground, resting his back against the old king.
“We must rest for a moment Tyler, for I cannot go on any further, I`m exhausted.”
Tyler was glad of the chance to rest too, for the heat had always made his feet ache, and so the suggestion to rest had been happily received, although for some reason Tyler was not as exhausted as he knew he should have been. Tyler and Masters let the hot sun play on them, making them feel sleepy with its heat. They rested for about an hour, both dozing, both dreaming of their nightmare dash across eternity. Tyler woke thinking for a moment that he was back in his bedroom, but reality soon flooded in. Tyler broke the silence, repeating thoughts aloud that had been reoccurring to both men ever since they had come out of their nightmare psychedelic journey through hell, to finally come to this LSD land.
“I must be dreaming George for this cannot be real.” He wailed in self-pity.
Tyler wondered whether some television personality might suddenly appear with his film crew to laugh at the two of them, for it was only another television reality show, and they were to be tonight`s stars in this ‘delightful’ jungle. Tyler rose and looked about them, the afternoon was certainly moving on, and here they were still lost in never-never land.
“Well George” Tyler said, “At least the weather is right for England, even if the rain is warm.”
It had begun to rain, and now quite heavily, and so Tyler put his jacket back on and both men moved along the length of the fallen giant to seat themselves beneath the shelter of the forest canopy, and out of the worst of the rain. After a few minutes a small waterfall started pouring down the huge leaves of a nearby palm tree, and both Masters and Tyler happily got wet so as to be able to quench their thirsts.
Tyler was still sure in his mind that they would soon come across signs that they would recognise, signs that would point out some town in either Surrey or Sussex, for where else could they be. They certainly didn`t have enou
gh fuel to reach any parts of the world where the rain forests were situated. Unfortunately, where they were now looked more like a rain forest than an English wood. The insects all seemed to be bigger, and their colours were certainly brighter than he remembered from his brief walks in the English countryside. They were certainly greater in number as they fluttered into the faces of Tyler and Masters, necessitating the continued use of their hands to push them away. The colour of the many birds also seemed brighter, some of their tail feathers much longer than any bird Tyler had ever seen in England. Could he have been this blind to the fauna of his home land? Even the space beneath the forest canopy differed, the flora seemed larger, greener, different, more exotic maybe; it was definitely not from Sussex, maybe Kew Gardens he thought facetiously. However, to think they had crashed into a botanical garden and had not found one sign of humanity would really be insane. Yes there were ferns beneath the trees of an English wood, but definitely not like these ones, he was forced to admit to himself. Everything here strained up towards the tree canopy, including the massive vines that wrapped themselves around the huge trunks of the trees, everything strained towards the patches of sunlight, towards the sky still noticeable in small clear patches amongst the almost unbroken canopy. This forest was wilder than the manmade dark forests of conifers back home, here they were still unshaped by Man. Tyler found himself a little bewitched by it all, the beauty of it lifting the depression that had settled over him, the very essence of life here getting into his very soul. If David Attenborough came round the next corner with a film crew following him, then he would not have been surprised. Thankfully it finally stopped raining and the drips from the foliage above were lessening in their intensity. The forest was probably never quite dry, and the humidity beneath the tree canopy would stop their clothes from drying out completely, but it was something, for the heat of the day under the blazing sun was worse than the cooler humid dampness under the canopy of the trees.
George Masters had once been a hero, he had flown fighter aircraft for the Royal Air Force against the enemies of Great Britain, and then when the war was won, he had been rewarded for his courage by being made redundant. Defence cuts meant that he was a civilian again, unwanted by so many in the new England. For a while depression had set in and his wife had left him for a man in the motor trade, well the recession put paid to quite a few jobs there also, and he was overjoyed to see his wife`s new boyfriend out of work, which had perked him up for a while. It had been about then that he had bought his Miles Finch aircraft, cheap, also because of the recession. Soon the recession was over and business was booming, but he had got old far too soon, and then slowly he had felt his spirit slipping away. He never went out now after dark, too many muggers about, he sometimes didn`t answer the door when a stranger called, today he had even thought of suicide. Masters chuckled to himself, suicide and here he was still alive after fate had offered him a suitable way out, still someone had to look after the boy; Tyler seemed a nice lad, better put off the suicide until later. Masters had been quiet for some time, lost as he was in his thoughts, but now he broke the silence that had descended on them.
“Time to move on Tyler, it would be nice to find signs of habitation before nightfall.”
Tyler looked across at his companion and agreed, and so they got up from their seats on the forest floor and moved off. It was then that they heard a loud noise coming from somewhere in front of them, something was moving along the narrow track that had opened up before them, and it too seemed as if it was moving towards them.
“It could be loggers I suppose.” Masters suggested.
Both men looked at one another as they queried the source of the noise, both still clinging to the forlorn hope that this was indeed somewhere in England. It wasn`t loggers though, and what they saw appear through the forest made them scramble in panic for one of the lesser trees, an extremely large black furry animal resembling a bear had appeared in front of them. Masters first thought was for himself; unfortunately he had two left feet, and he got them tangled amid a vine that ran across the floor and up the trunk of a nearby tree. He promptly fell flat on his face knocking most of the wind from his lungs, what air was left Masters used up with a loud cry of terror. The animal thankfully was not as quick as a bear, but even so it was making short time of devouring the space between it and the two men. Tyler seemed to have changed somewhat from the panic stricken man on the plane. He quickly pulled a complaining Masters to his feet and almost pushed him to a nearby tree that looked climbable. Masters` feet franticly searched for holds to help him propel himself up towards the safety of the tree`s branches, but without too much luck. This meant that Tyler was forced to spend valuable time shoving a puffing and complaining Masters up to safety. Unfortunately the beast was too near now to allow Tyler to scramble to the safety that George Masters had found, and so Tyler did what was to become natural to him, he fought back. Tyler picked up a section of a branch that a storm had torn from a tree, and with the bear almost upon him he spun about and caught the bear a blow with the heavy branch. However, he had almost mistimed it for it only caught the beast a blow on its stubby snout, but the beast stopped its charge abruptly and howled out in shock and pain. Tyler followed this blow by jabbing the branch into the animal`s stomach, which made it give ground before him. Unfortunately the animal then stood its ground and lashed out at the branch with its massive fore feet. It should have sent the piece of wood flying across the clearing, but Tyler found that he possessed more strength than he thought he had, for he was able to not only keep a hold of the improvised club, but spinning around he brought the added momentum into play, and with great satisfaction brought the club crashing round against the beasts head. The blow knocked the creature to the floor and stunned it long enough to give Tyler time enough to head for another young tree, which was some fifteen feet away, and he was able to scramble up it to safety. This finished any hope that they were anywhere within the British Isles, or indeed upon the continent of Europe. The Bear like animal was now back upon its feet, or to be precise it`s two back feet. It stood fully ten feet tall upon its hind legs, it was very mad at missing its dinner, and very angry at the treatment it had received at Tyler`s hands, so it roared its displeasure at them far into the night. It had been a close thing though, for in a final attempt to get it`s dinner it had made a try at grabbing Tyler`s feet but thankfully it`s claws just missed their target, brushing Tyler`s left shoe as he quickly drew his foot up to the safety the rest of his body enjoyed. For a while the bear pounded against the trunk of his tree as if attempting to knock him down, but tiring of this it then roared its displeasure, and Tyler just a little way above the savage beast could smell its fetid breath as it complained about missing its dinner.
“Thank you Tyler, you saved my life without a thought for your own safety, you are a true hero.” Master said to his new friend.
“Shucks, it weren`t anything.” Tyler said copying a phrase he had heard on Looney Tunes, he then smiled at his friend, for he was very glad to come through their ordeal without turning completely to jelly.
Chapter Eight
June 21st the Year 2494
The Heliots
Generalissimo Divilio saw the light of one of the suns of the binary star system, that was home to the Planet of the Light, brightening as his starship drew nearer to the fleet of his enemy, the enemy starships filled his view screen, but that was just for a moment. Then his ship, indeed his entire fleet was swept up into a space storm of immense strength and size. It had appeared out of nowhere, his mighty starships were the playthings of the gods who tossed and threw his fleet violently against the debris that the storm had swept up on its mad journey through time and space. Generalissimo Divilio saw that his mighty fleet was being drawn relentlessly towards a strange orange light that even now lit up his bridge, the light was filled with a myriad of objects of all shapes and sizes, and some of them looked as if they could destroy his fleet. As his fleet entered this area of the space storm,
the strange light eerily lit up his ship, his bridge. Some of his battle hardened crewmen began to scream for just the smallest instant, for they saw their very molecules changing second by second along with those of the giant starship itself. Divilio didn`t have time to ponder on what had occurred since exiting hyperspace, for he too was only able to watch in awe, unable to move as he saw his grand armada become the plaything of the gods. His flagship had been violently beaten and rocked repeatedly by this interstellar gale; his fleet had been struck by large rocks that crashed against the sides of his ships, threatening to cave their hulls in and kill their crews. Thankfully the shields of most of his large fleet were still working, and so the hulls on these starships weren`t breached, but the men and equipment had been damaged as they had been thrown around with such a violence that even he found hard to comprehend. Through the view screen he saw that intermixed with the rocks were clumps of vegetation torn from the ground of some distant planet, and a myriad of other obscure objects, all being drawn across space by this strange space storm. When it seemed that the ship couldn`t take much more the fleet shot out of the orange light and into another, much more real terror. Directly before him was a blue planet, but it did not look like the Planet of the Light, no somewhere entirely different, and this planet was only a few thousand miles away. Thankfully his fleet had not reached their maximum normal space speed when the storm had struck, giving his captains time to slow their starships, and so his fleet did not crash into the planet directly ahead of them at an insane speed. Divilio supposed that it must be the Planet of the Light, but they were so close now that Divilio wasn`t sure, and in any case he didn`t have much time to ponder the situation. Breaking jets fired again on each of the ships as their commanders tried to slow the headlong rush down towards certain destruction upon the planet`s surface. His bridge was full of noise, a mixture of screaming circuits that were not made to take this sort of punishment, parts of the bridge equipment had torn loose from their fixtures by the G force, and a cacophony of loud voices all asking the questions that he wanted answers too. What had happened? Where were they? Would they live through the next few seconds?