Creeping Through the Tulips

Creeping Through the Tulips

     Thomas crouched behind a large tree. He peeked around that tree. A field of tulips was about a hundred feet in front of him. Thomas glanced over his shoulder with a finger placed over his lips to indicate silence. Then he climbed up that tree he was hiding behind.

     As Thomas continued his climb three more individuals joined him under that tree. Anna was the first to get there. Martin and Elaine were right behind her. All four of them had on the same uniform. At least it was when it came to the dark gray bottoms. The only real difference was that the two males had red tops on and the females were wearing blue ones.

     About halfway up that tree Thomas suddenly stopped his climbing. He tested a thin branch right above him. It broke off in his hand. Thomas almost lost his footing too. At the last second he grabbed the branch just above the one that broke. He started climbing again. Thomas only got a few more branches before he almost lost his footing again.

     Thomas peeked through the leave in front of him. He could barely see the field of tulips. After a few seconds he continued climbing several more branches until he found a large one with a great view of that field. Thomas sat down on that branch. He could now see that the field was about a mile wide in both directions.

     After glancing in the sky above the tulips, and up and down in both directions, Thomas climbed back down that tree. Once down he talked to the others. “There’s no one here yet. They will be here soon though. It’s only a matter of time before they get here.”

     “Once we get across this clearing we can us the tulips as cover. I’ll go first. Then you Elaine. Followed by Martin and Anna. If they do show up before we are across, do whatever you have to do to get there.”

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      A few seconds later Thomas started running for that field. He got there without any trouble. Once there he admittedly started creeping through the very tall, about a foot taller than him, tulips.

     There were no rows. The tulips just seemed to be everywhere. Which made creeping through them a little difficult at times. At least they weren’t bunched up together. There was some leeway for Thomas to creep through. Thomas could hear the others behind him. Only he couldn’t see them. He looked back several times.

     Thomas could hear the other humans too. They were on flying disks barely big enough to hold their petite structures. The other humans were about half the size that Thomas was. Thomas had to stop, and crouch down, several times because they were flying right above him. He also had to lay flat on the ground a few times.

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     Elaine exited the trees about a minute after Thomas did. She entered the tulip field at a slightly different angle from where Thomas went in. like Thomas, she didn’t have any trouble getting there. Once there she started running through it.

     The tulips were very thick in that part of the field. Elaine had to push her way through there most of the time. She also had to step on some of the tulip’s outgrowth. When she did a very faint scream could be heard. At one point she almost fell to the ground tripping on one of the outgrowths – because it seemed to spring upward to catch her foot under it.

     Also like Thomas she was barely within those tulips when the other humans showed up. Elaine also didn’t see them until they were practically above her. By that time, it was too late. All she could do was fall to the ground – quickly. Elaine stayed there for several minutes. When she did start moving again she crawled her way through those tulips.

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     Martin took off from the trees a few minutes after Elaine. He was about halfway across that clearing when the other humans showed up. They came in from the far end of the tulip field. As soon as he saw them Martin started zig-zagging toward that field.

     Once the other humans saw Martin they started shooting small metal balls out of small tubes sticking out of their mouths. When those balls hit the ground, or Martin, there was a small explosion that sounded like a popping sound. Martin got hit four times by those metal balls.

     The first time it hit his shoulder near his head. Then a few seconds later another one hit his leg. It was about a minute later that the third one hit him in his chest near his heart. The fourth one hit his arm a few seconds later.

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     Anna didn’t even get out of the trees before the other humans showed up. Only her threat didn’t come from the field. It came from the trees behind her. The other humans came over the tree tops already firing their metal balls.

     The other humans weren’t very good. Most of their shots were wild. Those that weren’t hit the ground. None of them hit Anna as she started running toward the tulips. Her running was like their shots – wild. Like Martin she got to the field without getting killed.

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     Once on the other side of that tulip field they met up, and ran for a nearby cave. Knocking over two other humans watching the cave. One got sent to the ground while the other one ended up against the outer cave entrance.

     After entering that cave Anna, Martin and Elaine started gathering up their stuff about a hundred feet within there while Thomas put on a small thin jacket. Thomas tapped a red button on the center of that jacket. “This is one mission that didn’t go as planned. Teleport us out of here – now” a few seconds later they, and their belongings, disappeared.