A glint of gold appeared in Angel's eyes. Her eyes turned amber. As if held by a mighty hand, the vehicle hovered in mid-air before being gently laid on the sand. Screams that filled the air abruptly came to a halt, leaving an eerie, unsettling silence inside the vehicle.
Everyone present was left baffled and shaken, unsure of what just happened. The sudden, unexpected turn of events had left them all on the edge and it seemed as though their fate was sealed. Who would have thought that dunes were actually huge snakes hiding in their burrows?
They braced themselves for the worst, anticipating that they could be thrown out of the vehicle at any moment, which would inevitably lead to their untimely demise, but a miracle happened and V1 was untouched. The silence that engulfed them was broken only by the sound of their heavy breathing and the faint hum of the engine, lending an even more ominous aura to the tense atmosphere inside the vehicle.
The vehicle's engine eventually died when Leoric stopped hitting the gas pedal. He wanted to restart the engine, but Angel prevented him.
After witnessing what happened to V1, the drivers of the other four vehicles immediately put a safe distance between themselves and V1. They brought their vehicles to a stop and observed the situation with caution. Their reaction was understandable, given the alarming incident that had just occurred.
Captain Niel, the chief engineer Octavio, Alec, and Mario were all carrying guns, just like Leoric. They readied their guns and waited for an opportunity to kill.
After a minute of calm, the yellow dune nearest V1 rose again. A pair of constricted black pupils and a black-forked tongue appeared in front of Angel.
Emily screamed, then fainted. The snake hissed and lifted its head to attack the vehicle.
Its fangs hit the metal part of the vehicle, and it was in pain. The snake got angry. Its big body moved and encircled the V1, and it was about to crush it. It lifted its head in the air about two stories high and wanted to attack the vehicle a second time. Leoric moved fast. He shot the snake in the head, and blood splattered on the vehicle's windshield, which was made from fiberglass.
The sound of a gunshot caused a disturbance in the desert. Four of the sand dunes started moving, and two of the vehicles that were on top of the sand dunes were overturned.
Angel jumped out of the vehicle.
"Where are you going? Come back?" Leoric shouted, but Angel did not give him a glance.
"Oh no! Where is that woman going?" Doctor Gavin Reeves muttered under his breath. He, too, jumped out of the vehicle and followed her.
"Hey, over here!" Angel shouted at the top of her voice to distract the four big snakes about to attack the vehicles. Soon, a second person joined her, and another one came. They shouted at the top of their voices until they finally caught the attention of the giant snakes.
They were trying to lure the snakes away from the vehicles and their passengers, and they succeeded.
"Do you have a plan?" Gavin Reeves asked Mario as the two of them ran eastward.
"Run fast!" Mario Diaz shouted while panting.
"What the heck are these snakes? Why are they so big?" Gavin Reeves asked.
"Sidewinders." Angel answered instinctively. "We have to split up." As she uttered the words, she turned right while Mario Diaz turned left.
What they had not anticipated was how fast the sidewinders moved in the sand. The snake was about to strike Angel when Gavin Reeves shouted, "Watch Out!"
Angel dodged the snake's attack, but a second snake was also attacking her, just as when the fang of the huge snake whose head was as big as Angel was about to strike her arm, a gunshot, and a big thud was heard.
Angel turned around to see Leoric holding a gun. He was aiming at the other snake who was poised to strike him. Before he could pull the trigger, another snake from behind swept its tail and hit Leoric. Leoric was thrown ten meters away, and his gun slipped from his hand.
The snakes crawled toward him, but Angel jumped and landed between him and the three snakes.
From the corner of her eyes, she saw Gavin Reeves and Mario Diaz pointing their guns toward the snakes.
"Don't shoot anymore. These creatures are not aggressive by nature. It is us who trespassed on their nest. We hurt them first, and they just retaliated."
The last few dunes were burrows of these snakes.
Angels looked the snake nearest to her in the eye. Her eyes turned a darker shade of amber, just like the color of an ember.
The snake hissed. Its head was raised high and poised to strike Angel. It remained in that position for a full minute before the sand swirled around, enveloping the snakes and Angel.
"Sand storm. Go inside the vehicle and get cover!" Mario Diaz shouted.
"What about Angel?" Gavin Reeves shouted as he intended to run to where the center of the swirling sand was, but Mario knocked him at the back of his head. He slumped.
"Don't be stupid. Let's look for her after the sandstorm abated. We can't lose you. We need your medical skills."
Leoric struggled to get up, but he felt pain all over his body. Though he landed on the soft sand, the snake's tail delivered quite a blow to him. He closed his eyes to protect them from the sand.
His heart constricted at the thought that the 'woman' would die. 'No, she cannot die yet. I am not done with revenge yet.' With this thought, he lost his consciousness.
Mario dragged Gavin, and they hid behind the nearest vehicle, the water tank. Fortunately, Mario managed to drive it down from the peak of a true sand dune.
After Mario settled the doctor, he noticed something was amiss. If it was a sand storm, how come the swirling sand was concentrated in one area only? It was like a stationery whirlwind.
After some time, the sand settled. There was no sight of the three snakes. What remained was something white lying on the sand.