On her feet at last, Helen screamed at the ceiling.
"Don't move! There's rope in the entrance room, Will and I will – urrumph," a creature, appearing from the side, took hold of Helen's arm - sinking its teeth through her leather jacket. Its jaws clenched down onto her bone, extracting a shriek from her usually brave exterior. Another slammed into the back of her knees and she slumped back to the ground in pain.
The creature's head was black now, flaunting a dull sheen and crinkled surface. It horrified her that she appeared to be wearing it, like some aggressive accessory she might have owned a century ago. She tried to pull her arm away but found herself drawn toward the creature instead. Screaming, Helen kicked sideways at its head, hoping to dislodge its teeth from her arm.
Will made it to his feet, half limping – half falling forwards with motion. His back was searing from the creature's claws while his arm dribbled over his shoes and into the sand. He could see Helen on the floor, struggling against a creature unsure if it wanted to be sand or leather. Its back legs were digging and scratching at the floor behind as Helen tried to drag herself from its hold.
Another 'crack' reverberated off the walls. A creature lost its footing, rolling down the steps beside him. Will looked up and saw Ashley re-aim her weapon at the creature attacking her mother. It was clear from her growl that she couldn't get a clean shot.
Ashley's eyes kept the creature lined up but she couldn't stop her hand from shaking. She wasn't nervous, or scared – her body was going into shock most likely from all the blood she'd lost. Added to that, she knew that her legs were well and truly tangled in the rope. She had made sure of it so that she could drift in and out of sleep whilst waiting for help. Now though, it presented her with a problem; with the rope gradually breaking, she would go down with it.
Will, with a decent line of sight on Helen, brought his weapon up and took a shot at the creature. Nothing happened. Wiping away the sweat stinging his eyes, he tried again, rolling the trigger as Ashley had shown in on his first week. This time he felt the click but it was soft and empty. He was out of bullets.
"Shit..." he muttered, tucking it into the back of his jeans without thinking. "What do I do?" Will yelled at the room, not caring what answered him.
Helen shouted Will's name as she rolled on top of the creature. "At your feet! At your feeeeet!" Then she was gone again, with two creatures on top of her slashing and screaming.
Will looked down at his feet, wondering what help they could possibly be. There, to his surprise, he found the sleek form of his flashlight. He couldn't help but grin.
Scooping it from the ground, Will hopped over the last few feet until he was right on top of scuffle. Raising it behind his head, he let loose, bringing a heavy blow onto one of the creatures. Now with one arm free, Helen took a swipe of her own, knocking the other one off of her.
"Thank you," she said, gripping her arm with her hand to stop the blood gushing out of it.
"Mum..."
They both looked up and saw Ashley staring anxiously at what remained of her rope. There couldn't be more than a few strands left. Instead of swinging, the rope had started to twist in tight circles, putting even more strain on the nylon.
The twang from the final snap dragged a heavy silence after it. Helen saw only her child, suspended on the air with a rope snaking off in a wild curve, thrashing out toward the wall. Ashley's hands let go, reaching out like wings as the downward pull took hold of her. It was an action too slow to be real, as if the world had changed its motion.
"Ashley!" Helen threw her body carelessly forward, dodging a stray creature. Will followed, propelling himself with such force a creature bounced off his chest in fright.
"No..." Helen stood beneath her daughter as a scream filled the room.
Will, realising that Ashley didn't stand a chance, knocked Helen out of the way of her fall. As they headed to the ground together, Helen frantically grouped over Will's shoulder at the sight of her daughter sailing through the air. Then, a rush of wind kicked every granule of sand from the floor and the room vanished under a hazy veil.
It was if a jet liner had decided to take off beneath them except that they could see nothing as the roar encompassed them. Like lightening in the distance, Helen and Will were vaguely aware of a blue flash bleeding through the chaos. They couldn't hear Ashley's scream and yet they hadn't heard her hit the ground.
Shielding their faces in each other as the sand and wind peaked, they felt themselves tugged sharply. Will held on tight as they both slid over the floor, unable to breathe or see. They were drowning in it; the sand and the chaos. Overwhelmed with the noise, Will failed to feel the creature's claws, digging into his ankle with no intention of letting go.
Without warning - the room went quiet.
The wind stopped as abruptly as it had begun and the sand fell back where it belonged amongst the shattered remnants of urns and bone. Sand creatures were scattered everywhere, dazed and clumsy as they staggered about with their skins in flux, upset from the disorder.
The first thing Helen and Will did was breathe.
Helen opened her eyes. She found a pair staring back at her. They were blue – but not icy and clear like the sand people. These eyes were murky with flickers of grey and green blurring into watery disks. They were stark against the expanse of pale skin, sunken under a strong brow ridge as if sheltering from the world.
"Let's go," they said, reaching out a hand.
Without meaning to, Helen took hold and the world faded to black.
*~*~*
"Foss, you better aaanswer your damn headset or I'm coming over there to-"
"We are so, so – I can' believe how utterly and totally, phenomenally, I mean TOTALLY screwed we are!" Henry's panicked voice had trouble deciding what to confess to first. Unable to stop the topple of words spilling from his mouth, he continued to despatch information in fragments ranked via severity. "And then – he was gone. Druitt was outta here with a mean look and I think he was headed your way."
"Back up and slow down." Bigfoot waved the rescue party to leave without him. They were still unsettled by his appearance, most normals were. It was something he had gotten used to. It hurt, but less and less as the years wore on. "What do you mean 'Druitt'? I thought we were dealing with Sand People."
"I know," Henry was surrounded by open books and handwritten notes, "and we are. But I was just sitting here and suddenly he appeared from nowhere and I mean one minute there was a window and the next minute – damn, scary bastard – my arse is so gonna die."
"He triiied to kill you?"
"No – well, yes, but I mean that the boss is gonna kill me when she gets back. If she gets back. Of course she's getting back – I didn' mean that."
Bigfoot finally found what he was looking for – a large, nicely curved slice of metal. He threaded it through the straps of his pack and headed out the tent flap. Evening was finally starting to approach the desert. The surrounds were darker than they should have been, sheltered by the wall of rock behind the camp. Permafrost clung to the tents, thicker at the posts. By the time they reached the buried tomb, it would be night. Bigfoot's main concern was that the desert stories were true.
Most of the camp was on the move, heading toward the strange bump poking through the sand in the middle of absolutely nowhere. They are armed to the teeth, in some cases, literally. As residents of the desert, they had a pretty good idea of what was under the sand.
"Listen, we've got a few problems of ooour own. If Druitt turns up, we'll deal with him. Call you back when we're done."
Henry gripped his headset, as if squeezing the life out it would keep it on longer. "Don't hang up on me, don't hang up on me, don't -! Guh! Damn fuzzball, I hadn't finished yet."
There was a not so subtle scowl over the headpiece.
"You – still – there?" whispered Henry.
"Satelliiite delay."
Henry had forgotten about that. "Did you," he cleared his throat, "have something to add?"
"Yeah, prep the biggest cage we have. Helen's bringing home a new pet."