Chapter 3

Jenna stalked out of the police station. She allowed herself to focus entirely on this problem to avoid thinking about…. She clenched her fist and glared at Sam. It was his fault they were in this mess. She fumbled down the last step as she realized that her job would require her to report this immediately. Hopefully she could keep Simmons from sticking his nose in this for as long as possible.

She could make out Dad and Sam talking on the steps behind her, "Wanna tell me what really happened?" That was Dad.

There was a beat of silence before, "Remember when you said you would pick me up, no questions asked?"

"That ... was the deal, yeah." Jenna could tell Dad was regretting the deal he had with Sam right now. She waited by the car for them to catch up. Dad took out his keys and unlocked the door.

Sam hesitated before asking Dad, "Dad ... y'know how great gramps pretty much ... flew over the Cuckoo's nest? Think it could've been passed down to me? Like ... some kind of mutant Witwicky gene?"

Dad sighed, "Let's talk more at home. Come on."

Qatar, Desert

Telephone poles dotted the vast desert landscape and are connected by a single high-tension wire. Unbeknownst to Jenna, John Lennox and his team had survived the attack on the base. The boy that John had gotten to know over the past couple of months at the base was leading them to his home village where he hoped he could get a call over to the Pentagon to let them know what the hell happened.

Their first attempt at contacting them had failed when they were attacked by a machine that was smaller than the one that had attacked the base. Thankfully they had managed to get away unscathed. He doubted that luck would last.

In the distance, John could see the tiny, isolated hamlet and a few dozen huts along with crumbling buildings. He really hoped he could get a signal out. Suddenly, one of the poles shuddered as if it was shifted by something underground. An aging wood-frame sign, maybe 30 feet high, Sand starts to give way and crashed down to the ground.

John and the men instantly become alert, "How did that fall?" The boy asked John.

Before John could answer, the sand beneath Donnelly shook, then a hint of something metal and snake-like slithered underneath him. Donnelly fired his rifle into the sand. The thing that had been stalking them goes quiet.

Everyone was silent, scanning the ground for any sign of movement and John could practically feel the tension in his men.

Then, bam! The metal creature exploded from the ground. Sand sprayed everywhere as it's barbed-tail yanked Donnelly off his feet, flipping him upside-down mid-air.

"Whao!"

"Holly shit!"

Gun-fire erupted as the men tried to fight back but the thing dragged Donnelly beneath the surface, "Move! MOVE!" John yelled out the order. This thing, whatever it was, has just fucked with the wrong squad.

The remaining soldiers and the boy bolted toward the village. The metal creature plows after them, jumping in and out of the sand like a great white shark in the ocean. The team finally crossed into the village. The dogs were barking like mad and the horses began to whine and stampede. The people of the village shouted in Arabic. Soldiers ran out, expecting a fight but John just pointed in the direction they were running from.

"Take cover!" John ordered his men, "Form a perimeter! Our team dives into defensive positions behind mud walls." John nodded to the village men as they finally got that they weren't attacking but were running from something.

A man, who could only be his father, ran up to the boy, "Where have you been?" He asked in Arabic to his son.

The boy pointed to Lennox's team, "These men saved my life, Papa!"

"Do you have a phone?!" John asked the boy's father. He yelled out orders to his team, "Lay down fire!"

The man nodded, "This way." As they run off toward a hut, the strange creature leaps in and out of the sand. Strange blasts came from the creatures mouth and the team watched in horror as soldiers of the village are vaporized into dust. The team fires into the creature and the creature fired back. The fire from the creature hurt Ignite and fired a couple of blasts at some huts, completely disintegrating them.

The door to the boy's hut burst open as John and the boy's father stormed in. The father grabbed a cell phone and quickly passed it to John. John desperately dialed the phone number of the Pentagon. The answering service he got instead was not what he expected and only pissed him off further, "AT&T, how may I direct your call?"

"International to the U.S. This is an emergency Pentagon-"

The male phone operator responded in an Indian accent with a bored tone, "Your cell service doesn't include long distance minutes, Sir. Do you have a major credit card?

John growled in frustration, "Listen! I need you to put me through-"

"Sir, don't yell. I'd be happy to connect you but I need a credit card number."

"Shit." John ran outside, hopeful that one of his teammates had a credit card on them.

The battle raged on as John was in the hut dealing with customer service. Fig fired a grenade launcher and the sand exploded. The creature suddenly vanished in the rapid-fire flashes.

Epps shouted, "I hit it but it won't go down!"

John raced into the fray with a cell phone.

"I NEED A CREDIT CARD!" John shouted to his men.

"Got no credit Sarge, I'm broke!" Figueroa yelled back.

John raced on to Epps who blasted madly at the creature who had returned from underneath the ground, "COME ON SUCKER! I'MA TAKE A PATCH OUT OF YOUR ASS!"

"Sir, there's no need for that kind of Language."

John glared at the phone, "NO, NOT YOU! HANG ON!" To Epps he yelled, "YOUR WALLET!"

"BACK POCKET!" Lennox goes around to Epps' back and glares as he sees multiple pockets.

"WHICH BACK POCKET!"

"LEFT CHEEK! LEFT CHEEK!"

John frantically searched and finally came up with the wallet. He ran and stumbled back to the boy's father with the wallet, dodging fire from the weird creature along the way, "Got it!"

"Okay. Got it." John said to the annoying operator, "American Express and DON'T tell me you don't take it."

"Would you like to hear about our Premium Plus World Service Package? It allows you one hundred free minutes for-"

"I am Special OPS! Put the damn call through. NOW!" John gives up and screams into the phone.

Finally, John heard ringing on the other end of the line and a voice came over, "Pentagon emergency line-"

But before the guy on the other line could speak, John yelled, "United States Air Force Officer under hostile fire! Request relay to SOCCOM-" The battle could be heard over the phone and it seemed like the metal creature was winning, "We're under continuing attack from an unknown aggressor! Need immediate air support!"

Washington DC, Pentagon

A console tech snaps immediately around to Secretary Keller who is currently conversing with an agent across the room, "Sir! Satellite's tracking a special ops team currently under fire in Qatar. They say they're survivors of the base attack. We got A-10 patrols on the way."

The Secretary of State, John Keller ran over to the guy and ordered, "Put it on the monitors!"

A satellite feed appeared on the monitors in real-time and they could see thermal signatures currently battling with an unknown thermal signature. Then the image became clear and Keller's eyes widened, "What the hell is that?"

Qatar, Desert

John tossed the cell phone aside and ran to help his men, now that he finally got back up. "We got Beam-Rider incoming! Paint the target!" The men fan out, forming a perimeter around the creature they aim their weapons at the unknown creature.

Two fighter jets scream over the dunes to the team's location, bringing in the backup that they desperately needed. In the cockpit, the rifle laser designators appear on the tracking display. The A-10 Pilot speaks into his microphone, "Star One to Base. We've acquired the target."

The creature continues to fight the team, firing a pulse blast at Fig who dives but takes a serious hit. The Thermal Imager tumbles from his pack and rolls across the sand. The creature, knowing that the device contained an Image of him, advanced on the Imager.

Back in the fighter jets, "Star One, locking on target." The fighter pilot states as they came upon the battle. Missiles leap off the rocket pod, blast through the air.

John sees the incoming missiles and dives into the embankment as they hit the creature dead on! But when the smoke clears, it's unharmed. John's eyes widened, "No way." He swings around at the roar of one of the massive gunships with enough fire-power to bomb a town, "Incoming!" He yelled.

The soldiers ran for cover as the plane fired more powerful missiles at the creature! An eye-searing explosion shook the entire area and John's body shook with the impact and his ears began to ring. Smoke filled the area and John had to strain to see his men.

Washington DC, Pentagon

"What happened?!" Keller yelled, his eyes glued to the screen at the command center. The image showed smoke and the signature that was the creature was dimmed and fizzled out on the feed, "Did we lose them?"

"One, do you have a visual on the soldiers, over?" A techie spoke into his microphone, trying to figure out what happened to the team. They had survivors and needed to know what had happened at the base. They were too valuable to lose.

Qatar, Desert

The smoke began to slowly drift away and clear out the area. John appeared through the smoke, waving a hand signal as the fighter jets streaked overhead. They were alive!"

The 2nd fighter pilot answered the Techie's question, "Base, we got em."

John sank to his knees, knowing that they were safe and rescued while Epps stood behind him. Villagers began to emerge from hiding as the sounds of battle were over. Among them, the boy, Mahfouz, and his father, Akram, were safe. John smiled. At least some lives were saved today.

The smoke finally cleared, the creature was fully revealed, flapping around, its razor-barbed legs fighting to stand.

"Holy shit, this thing just doesn't die." Epps muttered, bringing up his rifle to aim at the creature, the men behind him doing the same. One of the legs falls off as the creature burrows back into the sand and Epps let out a breath, "Man that's some freaky wicked machine."

John stared at the place the creature burrowed into the sand. He had a sinking feeling that this wasn't over. Not by a long shot. The sound of fast, heavy breathing makes him turn around to see Fig, his chest rising with shallow breaths, and wounded. John ran over to his men's location., " Stay with me Fig, oh man - stay with" To Epps he shouted, "GET MED-EVAC DOWN HERE NOW!"

Nevada, Tranquillity

Jenna woke up from her nap. After Dad had driven them home from the Police Station, he had gone into one of his long lectures, yelling at her and Sam for being reckless. Jenna had mostly ignored him, after all, it was Sam's fault. She had gotten a phone call in the middle of the argument and when she looked down she saw it was Simmos. She groaned and used the excuse of a work phone call to get out of the lecture.

"Hi Simmons." She said, trying to sound upbeat.

Then the second lecture of the day started, "What the hell happened Agent Lennox? I got notified that you got arrested last night. You, arrested! Explain yourself."

Jenna had sighed, "My brother's new car, well, new to him, had been stolen and Sam had the bright idea to go chasing after it. I didn't want to lose another family member so I followed to try to keep him safe. We followed the thief to a junkyard and trespassed on the property in order to continue to follow it. Sam had called the cops on the thief and we were arrested for being the suspected car thieves."

There was an extended period of silence before, "Is that everything that happened?" The way that Simmons stated that question made Jenna shiver. It seemed like he knew something.

"Well," Jenna paused, "We did get chased by guard dogs and Sam almost peed himself."

Simmons snorted at her response, "Alright. I want a full briefing by tomorrow morning. Try not to get arrested again."

He had hung up and Jenna immediately went to get more sleep before her father dragged her back downstairs to the lecture.

Jenna stretched as she thought about the conversation with her boss. Simmon's question still rang in her mind 'Is that everything that happened?' She frowned as she changed into jeans, a white and green striped v-neck t-shirt, and black sneakers. She tied her black hoodie around her waist and put her hair back in a high ponytail. She did her makeup and walked downstairs into the kitchen to see her brother grab the milk from the fridge.

"Hey Sam."

Mojo starts yapping wildly at something, "Mojo, shut up. Hi Jenna." Sam closes the door and goes to get a glass from the cabinet. He looked right out the kitchen window and screamed, startled to see his wayward, Satan Camaro in the driveway, parked as close to the house as the car could get.

Jenna looked at Sam and saw the Camaro in the driveway, "Fuck." She muttered and dropped down to a crouch, wishing she had brought her purse that held her gun downstairs with her. She stared at Sam wide-eyed, "What do you think it wants?" She whispered.

However, Sam was too busy freaking out to hear her question. With shaky fingers he called Mile's number, "Mile's, it wasn't a dream!" He whispered shouted into his phone as he crouched up to spare a glance in the window and hunch back down again, "It's Satan's Camaro! It's stalking me!" His voice cracked on 'stalking.'

Milo obviously said something and Sam replied, "My car, it stole itself, it walked, now it's back, it's trying to kill me! I think. . . it wants my soul."

Sam listened to Milo's response and hastily said, "We're coming over. Jenna and I. We need someplace to hide that's not here. Don't move." He hung up and looked at Jenna, "Ready to make a break for it?"

Jenna nodded, "I'm ready."

"Follow me and run." Sam stated before making a low run to the garage door, careful to hide himself from any windows. Jenna followed and made her way into the garage. Sam looked around the garage and saw Dad's bike leaning up against the wall in the back. Dad had only gotten the bike to placate Mom.

Jenna looked around for something to ride and groaned when she saw that her only option was her bike from when she was a teenager, bright pink with streamers on the handles and a horn. Sam snorted as he saw her get on. Jenna glared and growled, "Not a word."

Together they raced out of the garage and into the unknown.