"We'll be right behind you. Just outside that shack," Kalimba promised. He watched as Zoe took a shaky breath and turned, creeping toward the wooden shed.
The wood exuded a damp aroma, marked by numerous cracks and holes. As she approached, she became very aware of the crunching of sand under her shoes, slowing her walking to a shuffle.
Gazing through one of many holes in the decayed shack, she discerned nothing within, yet the gentle snores of a child reached her ears.
The front door squealed loudly as she turned the knob and pushed it open. She stopped, holding her breath, staring ahead into the black abyss. 'I can't see anything right now. There could be a gun pointed at me less than six inches away, and I couldn't even see it!' She looked back, seeing the group a few yards away—Yahd had buried most of his body in the cold sand; only his face and arms stuck out, the light from the stars above glinting off his pistol.
'This will be risky,' Zoe thought, as a small buzz emanated from her. Putting as little effort as possible, she closed her eyes, manifesting a tiny bit of energy that delicately bathed the shack's interior with an evening orange light. 'Good, just enough.'
She took a large step forward, entering the shack. Cringing as she heard the loud creak of a floorboard under her foot. She put her hand in her pocket and pulled out several cards, holding them between her fingers in her left hand. With another step, she stepped over the sleeping man on the floor. She stood over him, both feet on either side of the Palmer. Her energy extended to the cards, hardening them. She brought the cards down toward his neck. Hearing a light cough, her head shot to the side as Melody turned over in her sleep. 'What am I doing? I can't do that…Not again.'
Zoe stepped over the man and took another few steps toward Melody. She crouched down, examining her face in the orange dim light. 'That's definitely her,' she thought as she held her breath once more, reaching down and lightly scooping up the sleeping child. After several large steps, she was out the door, and lightly jogging toward the car.
"You did it!" Asher yelled.
Everyone stopped and stared at him with wide eyes, then turned back to the shed, but no movement was heard.
Zoe looked down at the girl in her arms, but she didn't stir. She deactivated her energy and turned to Asher, glaring at him.
"Sorry," he hissed, covering his mouth with his hands.
They started the Jeep, and as Yahd drove forward, it sounded like a shotgun went off right outside their car.
"What the!" Asher jumped in shock.
"Shit!" Yahd yelled, his gaze fixed on the shack as he swiftly stamped his foot onto the gas pedal.
Mitani looked around wildly, "What was that?"
Zoe looked at Melody, slumped beside her, still not awake.
"It just backfired," Yahd said. His eyes widened as he glanced at the rearview mirror. He witnessed a man sprint out and make his way to the adjacent parked truck. In a matter of seconds, the headlights ignited, casting the interior of their vehicle in a glaring, urine-hued glow.
Yahd swore under his breath as set his eyes back in front of him. "Someone shoot him!"
Asher pulled out a pistol from the seat pocket in front of him, rolling down the window, and stuck his head out. "Ah!" he screamed, pulling himself back in. "Sand got in my eye!" He growled, furiously wiping at his eye with his coat sleeve.
Mitani opened the other window, sticking his arm outside. He blind-fired six shots in rapid succession, each missing their target by a mile. Zoe winced at each ear-piercing explosion. "Just drive!" Mitani screeched, pulling his arm back in.
"I Am!" Yahd screamed back.
"Shut it!" Kalimba yelled. He turned, looking into the backseat. "Is she alright?"
"I don't know," Zoe said, "she's somehow still asleep. She has a normal pulse, and her breathing is fine."
"Okay, good," he turned to Yahd. "Can we lose him?"
"Hey, Zoe," Yahd yelled. "Did'ja see what he was wearing?"
"He looked like the other soldiers, I guess."
Yahd swore under his breath once more, "I doubt I can do much—would be hard to lose most people in a desert. Guy probably has some driving training, so at some point we'll need to deal with this guy!"
As they zoomed through the dark desert, their headlights caught something in the distance—a towering presence.
"I think that's a forest," Asher said. "Those are definitely trees!"
A frown crossed Zoe's face, 'I have an idea, but there's no way- What would 'she' do in this situation? She'd be the one to…'
"I've got an idea," Zoe mumbled.
"What'ja say?" Yahd asked.
"I'm just saying that I have an idea," she said a little louder. "Can you go right next to the forest?" She asked Yahd, "Not in it, but as close as possible."
"I mean, maybe," he pondered.
"Speed up as much as possible," she un-clicked her seatbelt. "I just need two seconds where we're out of his line of sight. When that happens, slow down, and I'll grab her and hide in the forest. He won't realize this, and will keep chasing."
"Then what?"
"The forest doesn't look very big. We can ambush him on the other side. I can run through it fast, I think," the more she talked, she heard the confident timber in her voice begin to fade.
Yahd looked to Kalimba, who nodded after a few seconds. "Okay," he said, speeding up as fast as possible, getting as close to the trees as possible, weaving in and out of stumps and large sticks on the ground. 'There!' he thought, seeing the headlights behind him disappear for a split second. He slammed on the brakes, sending sand into the air, as the jeep skidded to a stop. "Go!"
Zoe grabbed onto Melody as Asher flung open the door. As she jumped, the orange hue of her aura expanded around her.
Palmer squinted. Was it his imagination, or did he see an orange light, almost like a flickering fire in the woods—only for it to vanish the moment he laid eyes on it?
As she sprinted through the forest, Melody began to stir in her arms, yawning and squirming.
"P-palmer?" She yawned.
Zoe opened her mouth but didn't know what to say.
"You're not Palmer!" Melody squirmed, scratched, and bit.
'This doesn't hurt, but it makes it difficult to run,' she thought as she ducked under a low-hanging branch. She winced, hearing Melody's blood-curdling screams for someone named Palmer.
Leaping over a fallen log, she spotted a slender, white, two-story home nestled in the heart of the forest, as if it had been teleported from the midst of an inner city.
The creature's blood-stained grin cut through the darkness as it emerged from the modest orange stucco home. Inside, the aftermath resembled a tornado's chaotic dance—upturned tables and chairs, with scratches and blood adorning the walls.
It sniffed the air, smelling nothing else worth eating in the small aboriginal village.
Smelling the ground, it was back on Melody's scent. A strange look crossed its face as it cocked its head to the side, "He-help…Help me," it mimicked, its voice sounding almost identical to the woman he heard just moments ago.
"Stop struggling!" Zoe complained, eventually dropping Melody on the couch inside the abandoned home. She held up her hands, "I'm not here to hurt you, okay?"
"Where's Palmer?" Melody yelled, her eyes closed and her face in a deep frown.
"I-I don't know who…is that the guy you were with?"
Melody nodded furiously. "Take me back!"
"Can we be cordial? Please?"
Melody scooted off the couch, stumbling forward, screaming, "I don't know what that means!" She bumped into Zoe and fell backward.
"Watch where you're going!" Zoe said, quickly getting irritated at the loud yelling, grabbing the squirming child, placing her back on the couch, "Are you blind or something?"
"Yeah," Melody said.
"Wait, what?" Zoe crouched down, looking at her, "Like, you can't see me? Even if you open your eyes."
Melody sighed like she'd had this conversation over one thousand times before, "No! I can't!"
"Can you give me just thirty seconds to explain what's happening? Uninterrupted. Just thirty seconds—not even a minute. I'm not here to hurt you; in fact, the exact opposite."
There was a long silence before Melody spat out, "Fine! Hurry up!"
"Like I said," Zoe started, "Me and four other people came here to rescue you from the compound you were held in. We are here to RESCUE you, okay?" She talked quickly, but sternly. "We are not trying to harm you. If we wanted to, we could have."
"Okay," Melody said. "I want to see Palmer! He was saving me!"
"Oh," Zoe said, crouching down on the floor, deep in thought. She took out her box of cards, absently flipping through them as she tried to make sense of everything. 'So, if I had to guess, Palmer was a rogue soldier of the compound. They seem to have some type of previous relationship, so he definitely wasn't like us…I need to tell the rest before they kill him!' She got up, pocketing the cards, and stood in front of Melody, "I'm going to take you to him. We're all gonna rescue you, okay?"
Melody's face broke out into a wide, mostly toothless grin, "Really?" Tears of joy streaming down her cheeks, "You mean it?"
"There she is!" Asher yelled, pointing ahead into the forest.
Kalimba slammed on the brakes, "What the hell is she doing?" He asked, seeing Zoe with the kid still in her arms.
They all watched, faces wracked with confusion, as Zoe walked from the forest onto the dry desert sand. When she saw the headlights of Palmer's truck round the side of the forest, she placed Melody by her side, and put her hands in the air.
Yahd, Asher, and Kalimba all got out of the jeep. Yahd stood behind the vehicle, aiming his gun at the quickly approaching truck.
Asher ran to Zoe, asking her what she thought she was doing, but Zoe only responded with, "Put your hands in the air. He's not an enemy!"
Palmer hopped from the truck, aiming his rifle at Yahd, seeing the pink light that glowed around him. He glanced over to Melody, seeing Zoe with an orange aura around her as well. "What in the world is this? This has to be some kind of trick, right?"
"Yahd!" Asher screamed, "Lower the gun! He's on our side!"
'Bullshit!' Yahd and Palmer thought, continuing to aim their weapons at each other.
Palmer faltered, noticing the grin spreading across Yahd's face.
'I've got him. It's perfect. Headshot! Bang!' Yahd thought as his finger closed around the trigger of his pistol.