"By the way, now will be an excellent time to say this—almost forgot… You should be very careful when you're in the desert. Lots of nasty little bugs and animals are roaming around. A rule to keep in mind for this place: If it looks edible, don't eat it. If it looks cute, don't trust it," Damon called from the top of the yacht.
Zoe nodded, hopping from the deck and dropping onto the dinghy.
The motor roared to life, and the boat quickly sped towards land, almost flying over the water.
The sky was a slight orange, too late in the day to see ten feet from the front of the boat.
They rode silently for several minutes, the chilly morning wind cutting through their black clothing like a cold knife plunging into their skin.
Several speed boats collided with the beach several miles away, sending sand into the air. Quickly, the men hopped off their ships, fastening their gear onto their bodies.
There were seven of them in their company, all hired to complete one job.
They quietly sprinted up the beach, reaching two vehicles: a sleek black jeep and a black and green military transport truck.
The leader of the band of mercenaries held his hand in the air, turning back to the rest. "Weapons and armor check."
"secure and ready," they all said in unison.
"Good," he nodded. He was about a head taller than the rest of them. Tattoos covered the exposed skin on his arms and legs. "Alright, load up into the vehicles. We gotta get there quickly before the sun comes up—no time to waste."
Over twenty miles inland, a group of three wildlife researchers trudged through the cold desert.
Leo, the senior member of the group, pointed to a fresh skeleton on the ground. Fresh and seemingly hours old, chunks of meat and cartilage still hanging from the carcass. "Right there," he indicated to his colleagues.
"Ooh," One of them cooed as she stepped forward, her face inches away from the skeleton and the footprints that led away from it. "So this is the same one from Crater?"
"Yup," Leo nodded. "They said to release it away from civilization and study it for a few months."
The other one spoke up, "You weren't here for it, but it has been pretty damaging to the local ecosystem here. Doesn't seem to have much of a consistent diet—just kinda eats whatever it wants whenever."
"Depending on what we find, we have a choice of moving it to a better, more stable environment or putting it down."
Deep below the compound, a soldier scanned his card, and the sliding metal door silently slid open.
He held a small food tray; a pile of scrambled eggs, a piece of toast, and several colorful pills were placed in their designated spots.
He walked up to the thick plexiglass that divided the room. It had several holes for airflow and a small opening to slide objects back and forth.
He glanced at one of the several security cameras in the room. He turned back to the glass, tapping it. The small girl who lay motionless on the bed against the back wall stirred.
An orange lava lamp on the bedside table gave the small cell some very low visibility; its light splashed against the drab concrete walls, but Palmer knew it wouldn't have mattered whether or not it was pitch-black or if they put an overhead light inside.
"Palmer?" The girl called out, crawling on the floor toward the glass, putting her hands in front of her to feel for any objects in her way.
"Yeah, it's me," the soldier smiled. "An early breakfast."
Her eyes slowly opened once she felt the slick plexiglass. Her large pale grey eyes were almost milky, squinting, trying to fixate on where his voice was coming from.
"Here," he bent down, sliding the metal tray into the cell and closing it.
The girl felt around the tray. Eventually, her hand touched one of the pills. "Eugh," she recoiled, pushing the tray away.
"You gotta make sure to eat everything on there, okay?" He spoke slowly.
"Hmph," she muttered, sniffing the food on the tray.
"How about this. You know those donuts and candy bars you really like?"
Her eyebrows raised as she nodded excitedly.
"Word is that someone's gonna be bringing them. I'm willing to be a little risky and grab some for you and give 'em to you tomorrow morning."
A wide smile crossed the child's face. "Really!" She said eagerly.
"Mhm, yeah. But only if you eat everything on here, alright. I know the pills aren't too fun going down, but you gotta do it."
"Okay," she relented.
"So, Melody," Palmer started after a few minutes of watching her eat. Before he could continue, the light in the room turned to a blood red, and a wailing siren pierced the air.
Melody screamed and covered her ears, crawling backward and covering herself with her blanket.
Palmer cursed under his breath, taking the rifle from his back and scanning his card to unlock the door to the room. "I'll be back! Don't worry, just an alarm!" He called to her and ran out of the room.
The mercenaries had parked atop a hill overlooking the compound. The front gate faced west, and they had come from the southeast.
The leader put his night vision binoculars back in his pocket. "I see six on the wall—two on the spotlights and three on the ground level. I'm sure there are more of them inside." Pointing a gloved finger at the compound, "Building number three. The tall one. That's where she is being held." He turned to say something else to his squadron, but he paused. Everyone stared back at him. "Do you guys hear that?" He felt a rumbling deep in his chest. He glanced past his group, seeing if somehow one of the two vehicles had been turned back on, but they stayed off.
One of them put their hand to the ground, "It's like an earthquake. The ground is shaking."
The leader walked back to the top of the hill; toward the west, he noticed a ploom of dust. A loud horn pierced the air as he was about to look into his binoculars.
"Hit the deck!" He ordered as everyone fell to their stomachs. He waited, ready to see the spotlights turn to their location; to hear the screams and the running of soldiers, but none of that came.
He motioned to the rest to stay put as he slowly shimmied back up the hill, binoculars in hand.
'They definitely didn't alert to us. Whatever they're attentive to is what's making that big cloud of dust,' he thought, scanning the compound and seeing the soldiers inside running around frantically.
"They're animals," he said once it came into view. "The stampede is heading toward the front gates."
"Geez, look at those things," a mercenary said, lying next to the leader. "More like monsters."
"It looks like they're running from that," he observed, pointing toward a tall figure following the herd about two hundred yards back. He couldn't make anything out through the dust, even with his binoculars—just a towering red mass that lumbered after them on all fours.
They both quickly ducked down, hearing the snaps from bullets as they flew through the air.
Peaking over the hill once more, he watched as soldiers lined up in towers, across the walls, and on the ground, raining bullets down at the incoming animals. Kicking up dust and blood as they hit their targets.
He looked back toward the creature in the back. 'It's acting strange, not like an animal, but different. As if it's pacing back and forth—waiting for something.' As the clouds settled, he zoomed in, trying to make out details. "Its eyes…Almost humanlike."
The tan camo jeep bounced along the ground as the group sped toward their destination.
Yahd sat in the driver seat, with Kalimba in the passenger, holding the map and directing. Zoe sat behind Yahd, and Asher was adjacent to her.
Zoe perked up, hearing the cracking of what sounded like fireworks in the distance.
"Gunfire," Asher noted.
They felt the car lurch, slowing significantly.
"Yo, what's happening?" Asher leaned forward into the front seats.
Kalimba pointed out the front windshield, "Too much dust to see very far. Looking at the topography of the map, we need to find a small path that'll allow us to go at it from the north. We'll miss it if we go too quickly."
"Okay," Asher nodded.