Exodus Hill

  The seven ran for two days, only stopping to eat and sleep a few hours at a time knowing the enemy was a day behind them. They were going to try to lose them in the forest, but when Joven climbed up a tree, he looked back and saw dust rising in the distance.
   “They’re gaining on us” Joven cried out, twenty feet up on a branch.
   “How far?” Elio, the squad leader yelled back.
   “Fifteen maybe twenty miles” Joven responded. “I just can see them yet”.
   Elio thought for a second. “They’re running at full speed. They’ll reach the tree line by dusk.”
  “They’ll be tired” Lobos added. “We can take on them in the cover of darkness, set up a couple of traps and…”
  “We don’t know how many of them there are” Marte said catching his breath.
   “Quiet! I’m trying to think” Elio shouted at the group. “Their trackers will know we’re still in the forest, too risky. The hills leading to the mountain pass are two days away and we don’t know if the phantom regiment will let us through,” he paused for a second looking at Robels. Robels was bleeding from his wounds.
   “We need to meet them and fight them” Robels said.
   “We don’t know how many…” Marte said when Elio cut him off. “Yes, we don’t know how many, but Exodus hill is just a day away. We can be there by morning and fight them inside the chamber!”
  They all paused for a second looking at each other. Joven climbed down quickly. “It’s our only chance. I don’t think they have more than thirty, we can take them on in the chamber” Elio added.
   “Yes” Toledo Vale, still carrying his dead friends’ tags around his neck said with his low husky voice. “They’ll be so confused, they’ll lose all strategy when their feet lift off the ground.”
  Simon who had been quiet since they had buried their old platoon leader spoke up. “If we get there by morning, it’ll give us plenty of time to rest and confront them.”
  “Then we all agree” Elio said.

   They walked all night long. Joven, several feet ahead made sure there weren’t any traps. Lobos tried to cover their tracks and throw off their scent. By first light, they saw the edge of the valley and Exodus hill another seven miles away. Joven climbed up a tree to make sure it was all clear.
   Once in the open they started running at a steady pace. An hour into their run Lobos yelled out “They’re gaining on us”.
   A squad of forty-one men had cleared the trees and were several miles behind. As Elio ran next to Lobos, they all started smiling. They had reached Exodus.

   Joven, the fastest runner, reached the hill first. He knew perfectly where the entrance to the old wreckage was.
   They ran into the dark tunnel as the lights flickered. Engines whirred in the distance in the levels below. Joven pushed the heavy door open leading to the large dome shaped arena. The engines kicked in and the magnets locked the door only to become unlocked when the engines quit. A few seconds later, with all seven inside, the engines kicked in again and they became light, their feet came off the ground, their stomachs turned, all their gear became weightless like feathers.  
   By now Joven had started counting the seconds as the engines turned on and off, finding the pattern. The mechanism of the old wreckage, the U.S.S. Exodus, buried under dirt and grass, oddly enough still worked after so many decades. When the engines whirred, the anti-gravity chamber turned on and off for seconds at a time.
   Marte was almost four feet up in the air when it turned off and he slammed to the metal floor landing on his feet. They counted and when the engines kicked in, Marte hovered in the air again.
   They rested for nearly an hour, memorizing the seconds and the pattern: on five, off four, on six, off three, on twelve, off two, on fifteen, off eight and so forth. They could go full on the offensive when they were off.

   Joven, never scared of heights, jumped at the right moment and floated ten feet up, swimming through the air reaching the chains that dangled from the ceiling and hung there by one hand. Lobos, now with dark camouflage face paint, hung on the wall like a ghost, steadying himself on the wall hooks. Marte prepared the arrows with poisoned tips, ready to let them fly. Toledo Vale, on the opposite side of the arena held a six foot heavy chain that slammed on the floor but picked up with ease like a silk scarf in slow motion when the gravity hit zero.  Elio, Robels, and Simon stood strategically around the arena. They secured their feet on the floor hooks so as to not float way, ready with their palms on the pommels. They heard them coming down the tunnel.  
   “Ready?!” Elio yelled, his voice echoing and then getting lost in the dome as the engines whirred. The old spaceship’s anti-gravity chamber was now a battle ground as they drew their swords.