Path of Ranger: Volume 1 (35 page)

It was a mysterious place that had lots of unexplored secrets in it. The place where fascinating things had happened. The island was shut down for men forever.

Seven hours passed after two swingers had left the mysterious island. The pilots kept the machines in a low echelon to not miss the ground behind the clouds. For all that time, not even the smallest piece of land appeared on their way, nor continents, nor islands. The primary concern of JB’s and Mark’s was that limitless cloud cover. They hoped to overcome it and get some connection with civilization. But it was useless, the clouds were everywhere and no signal could go through it.

Being safe inside the swinger, Doc got out of his mech. It suffered a great deal of damage during the fighting. The supply chains were harmed, as well as the armor, a huge crack was on the windshield, and the coating was scratched enormously. While JB controlled the swinger, Gibson stayed in back, working on his faithful creation. He was sure that he would need a mech in the future. After the most of functional parts had been taken care off, Doc took off the rear armor. It was thick and cumbersome, it looked like a solid piece of metal. Yet, a puny scientist managed to lift it all by himself and without any hard effort brought the part to the cockpit.

Mark took a co-pilot seat, next to JB, holding the armor on his lap. Then he turned the shield with the inner side to himself and used a combination on a hidden keypad. The shield divided into two pieces. There was a repository inside, which held a small black leather sack in it. He took it out carefully and put aside the shield parts.

“What’s inside?” the mutant nodded at the sack.

“Perhaps it is the most valuable thing on the planet,” Gibson said, carefully holding it in both hands.

“Wow! Really? Can I see it?”

“Sure you can. It’s yours. Nobody but you can touch it,” he handed to the artifact to the mutant.

When accepting the thing, JB looked at Doc once more, to ensure that he could take it out. There was something solid and substantial inside, it felt like a rock. The mutant untied the sack and shook the artifact out. A vinous crystal fell out, somewhat smaller than a baseball. It was an enormous piece of gibsonium, JB had never before seen such a significant amount of it, just sand or dust.

“Where did you find so much?” JB asked.

“It was the very first sample that I found on the island. This element is in your system, so you’re the only one who can hold it. I hope it may be of great use to you. Now, you, JB, are the guardian of, perhaps, the most dangerous thing in the world.”

Mark was going to lay a hand on his comrade’s shoulder, but he dropped that attempt when remembered what happened to the ones who touch his skin.

JB had no idea what to do with such an amount of gibsonium. Nevertheless, he didn’t flush Doc with questions, just put the crystal back in the sack and fixed it to the belt. Gibson sat back in a seat, buckled up, and closed his eyes. The fuss was over; he could finally get some rest. He trusted JB like no man before. He had no doubt that JB would keep doing an excellent job of protecting the group. Only then, when the island was left far behind, could the scientist could feel himself as actually free.

Once every half hour JB hailed for Skyman to check out how the things were on the second swinger. Both vessels moved close, with about one hundred yards of distance in between. The smaller one was in the lead. The navigation systems were dead, even the compass didn’t function right. The vessels were following nothing but the mutant’s intuition. And as for him, his choice was to keep flying straight all the time, there had to be land at some point.

A few more hours passed, there was no land. Josh hailed another swinger.

“Hawk-One, come in. Over.”

“It’s Hawk-One. Can you see something? Over,” JB answered.

“Nothing new there,” Skyman replied sadly. “Do you? Over.”

“Still clear, Hawk-Two. Nothing has changed. Over,” JB said looking at the sleeping Doc.

For some reason, the mutant was much concerned about the partner’s sleep. Maybe he was just bored or wanted to give Gibson a ‘favor’ back, but JB wanted to troll him somehow. So from time to time he shook the vessel to interrupt that peaceful dreaming and make Doc nervous through his sleep.

“Got you, Hawk-One. We keep the same course. Hawk-Two out.”

As soon as the radio went back on the dashboard, JB checked the fuel indicator. The tank was half empty. If land weren't going to be found soon, they all would get into the very dangerous situation. Nothing but water remained far around. The fall would mean death.

After talking to the captain, JB decided to try something new – to fly above the clouds. The surface would be hidden from him, but if there was a chance to receive any kind of signal, it would certainly be worth of trying.

That moment a first rain drop fell on the windshield as a sign of bad luck. It all started small, but in a few minutes the rain became a tropic shower. The weather got awful, especially around the clouds. The wind grew in its force. A storm was coming. If he was to try to fly up, it was the moment, there might not be an opportunity later. JB pulled the steering wheel to go up.

“Hawk-Two, come in,” JB hailed for the second unit.

“Hawk-Two is here, over.”

“Yo, Cap! I’ll try to fly up to check the connection. You keep on course. Soon as I break three miles’ altitude, I’ll holla at ya. Over.”

“JB, we’re not in the US anymore. Use the metric system,” Skyman said.

“Speak to you again after five kilometers, yo!”

“That’s better,” Josh’s voice sounded cheered up. “Good luck. Over.”

JB hung up the microphone and looked at the sleeping Gibson once again. He wasn’t going to wake him up, no help needed from Doc just yet. The pilot increased a pull on the main thrusters to drive the machine out of the echelon.

The higher the swinger was going, the stronger the wind was. It seemed that those clouds were put there on purpose to hide the sky from unwanted eyes. Just as the swinger broke the fifth kilometer, JB was going to hail for Skyman. When, suddenly, lightning struck before the ship. Then thunder rolled through the sky. It happened so unexpectedly that JB dropped the microphone from his hand. It also woke up Mark. If not the safety belts, he probably would have jumped off the chair. When Doc opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was his comrade, who was steering the wheel in a rush, trying to avoid all upcoming lightning charges.

“What’s going on?” the scientist asked. He looked scared and confused.

“Bad weather,” JB answered.

He fully concentrated on watching for the next closest flash.

“Aren’t you going to lower the speed?”

“No, we gotta check the connection.”

They were high enough, but still in the clouds. The computer started to scan for a signal. JB noticed a malfunction in some of the other instruments. At first it was tachometer, barometer, and chronometer. In a minute, the whole cabin went crazy. The arrows of all of the instruments were spinning, the computer’s screen went blinking, then it turned off. The handling of the swinger was becoming more and more difficult. It was tossing from side to side, the thrusters lost their sync. A red light went blinking inside the cockpit, then the siren sounded. It was a control failure warning.

“Da fuck is going on?!” JB complained.

“I’ll try to do something,” Doc said.

He unbuckled and went into the backroom, fighting the shaking. Gibson bet on redirecting the thrusters control configuration manually to regain the stability.

The swinger was rushing through the thick clouds full of chaotic wind and lightning. The maneuver thrusters went off, the control over the flight was lost with them. JB looked in front of the vessel, where the lightning storm was seen among the clouds. The swinger was carried by nature’s force. The mutant realized that there was nothing more he could do; the crash was inevitable. The best case scenario was to lose the rest of the thrusters and fall into the water. But if lightning hit the vessel, the outcome would be much less predictable. JB had his doubts about his own survival after the crash, but he was confident of Doc’s death in such case. Mark needed protection.

“Yo, Doc!” the pilot shouted to the backroom.

“What?” a displeased voice came from behind.

“I think you betta get in the mech,” JB said while staring in front of him. The clouds went much darker there.

“I’m busy,” Gibson responded when his hands were full of thin cables of the switchboard.

“Now!” JB shouted as loud as he could.

Gibson flinched from such a yell. He left the switchboard and looked outside to see what the fuss was about. The picture cleared all of his previous thoughts: an incredible storm was in front of them. There was nothing he could do now. Doc crawled over the shaking floor to the mech. Then he rushed to put all of missing pieces to their place. When the machine was complete again, Mark got in and set the operating system reboot. Usually, he had to spend about fifteen minutes for all that process, so it was surprising how he managed in only five that time.

“How is it going, Doc? Are you ready?”

“Almost!” Gibson shouted when closing the front hatch.

The white giant entered the cockpit. There wasn’t much room for the mech, but somehow Mark managed. He picked up a rear shield to put it on and sat in the co-pilot seat. Of course, it was tight and the safety belt was barely enough to go around the mech’s waist. Yet, it was better than flouncing with the rest of the baggage in the backroom.

By that time, all of the thrusters went off, the vessel was carried only by its velocity and wind. JB released the steering wheel, he tightened the belt and grabbed onto the seat as hard as he could. The rain had flooded the windshield. A thick current of water wouldn’t let them see outside, only blurry flashes reached the cabin with their light. The sound of thunder grew louder, perhaps it was the most terrifying of those elements. The vessel got carried to the heart of the storm. The darkness coated it.

There was an enormous amount of energy around the ship, JB could feel it. His skin was covered in goosebumps and shivers went over it. A mighty force was in those clouds. It was only the beginning. The mutant’s breathing became hard, his heart rate grew, he got worried all of the sudden. The presence of such a power around had wakened a strange feeling inside of him, similar to hunger. JB could sense that energy as a shark could smell blood. He wanted to touch it, take it, even though it would kill him.

The first lightning charge hit the swinger, the sheathing took most of the damage, but no consequences. Then a whole series of hits followed. The light went out inside the ship, and the dashboard went sparkling. If there had still been hope before, now it was clear that none of equipment remained functional. Three tons of steel and titanium had to go down, but that wasn’t the case. Nevertheless, neither Gibson nor JB paid attention to the abnormal direction of the vessel.

The swinger’s coating got covered in black burns from the lightning. In the few next minutes, the rain got a bit lighter. One thought which comforted the comrades was that it couldn’t be worse. Suddenly, a flash struck the vessel straight to the windshield. The bright light blinded them both for a brief moment. White spots kept blocking JB’s vision. He looked aside, at Gibson, the mech stayed still.

“Doc, are you okay?” JB knocked on the mech’s front glass. No answered followed. “Yo, Doc!”

Nothing. Gibson was out.

In a minute, the ship was pulled out of the clouds. Everything got illuminated there, a bright sun was upon them, a blue sky around. It was like entering a completely different world. No dark clouds, no rain, no lightning. It was the first time in months since JB had seen the sun. The thrusters were out, yet, the swinger kept flying ahead. JB felt tiredness, his eyes wanted to shut, the sleepiness tried to take over. But he didn’t get to sleep. The mutant tried to fight the fatigue. He tensed the muscles and held his eyes wide open.

When the storm stayed behind, that sense of surrounding energy was much clearer. He realized that it was an unknown force that pulled the swinger forward.

JB believed that the lightning had burned all of the instruments and there was left nothing functional on the dashboard. When a radio turned on.

“Hawk-One, come in. Hawk-One, can you read? Come in, Hawk-One.”

“It’s Hawk-One, talk to me, Josh.”

“Thank God! JB where were you? I tried to hail you for the last twenty minutes,” Skyman expressed a lot of concern in his voice.

“There was a stor…” JB stumbled when the swinger came out of the clouds. “Man… Cap, you gotta see this…”

“See what? Where are you?” Skyman asked.

“Fly up!” the mutant put down the radio.

Just the clouds cleared, an unbelievable picture appeared in front of the mutant’s eyes. Several kilometers from them there was a plateau hovering in the sky, and a golden city lay on it. The swinger moved towards it. Those inside had an incredible view. The city rested on the white clouds as if on pillows. To JB, it looked like how he would imagine heaven might be. There were tall buildings seen from that distance, with lots of forms and structures. The mutant’s attention got attracted the most to the giant mushroom-type skyscrapers. And flying transport was there everywhere in the city airspace. Life was thriving there.

When going through thousands of kilometers over the ocean they wished to get to civilization, but no one even dreamed of seeing something like that. It seemed highly unreal. JB realized that the city had something to do with attracting his transport. He didn’t know anything about that place yet. It might be good, or bad, or ugly. One thing Bridgers knew for sure, he wanted to get there very much.