CHAPTER THREE
Lewis was up before the radio alarm, before first light. He leapt out of bed like a child on Christmas morning, uncontrollably excited about the prospect of being one of the first to get a fresh update about the people in the infirmary. He fumbled around in the darkness and donned his fatigues and boots as quickly and quietly as possible before tip toeing towards the door. He reached for the handle.
"What are you doing?" Davis whispered.
Lewis jumped slightly, not expecting that he had woken his room mate up.
"I.." he whispered, "I just want to see what's going on..."
"See what, Lewis? Are you going to sneak into the infirmary or something?" Davis said with tone in his voice that suggested both that Lewis shouldn't do it and that he wanted to go with him.
"No! Will you be quiet! Shh!" I just want to go out and see if anybody knows anything. That's all."
"Well, wait for me, alright?"
He waited silently for Davis to dress and not too long before breakfast mess time, the two headed down the corridor of the barracks building and out into the main courtyard. Even though there were always ranks out all day and all night on the base, Lewis thought for sure he and Davis would be the only ones sneaking around before they were supposed to be. To his surprise, he found many people out in the early hours of the morning, all casually glancing toward the infirmary unit and trying to mingle amongst each other as unsuspiciously as possible.
Everyone wanted know what was going on, and much to Lewis's surprise, commanding officers were not in sight. No one was ordering their troops back to their barracks or back to their duties, or just away from the area. Perhaps it was because no one dared get too close to the infirmary, Sans thought. It appeared as though any officers inside the building that may have been cued in to the curious glances from the ever growing number of troops outside must have understood the peoples' concerns.
The morning was quiet as the dawn light broke through the night clouds and yet more curious and worried people starting filing out of their assigned barrack areas headed for the mess hall, but casting curious eyes towards the infirmary complex.
The ominous gray building lingered quietly in the morning light, still silent, holding its secrets. Officers gathered around the cafeteria and whispered to one another for close to twenty minutes, each trying to figure out what another knew. Those that had had overnight duties were quick to get interrogated by curious peers. As it turned out some of the overnight crew did at least know some information. It wasn't much, but it was enough to pacify the mobs at least.
Coolbaugh found Sans and Lyle in the group.
"Did you here what Marshall was sayin' guys?"
They glanced at her, "No, what did he say."
She took a breath and licked her lips,
"He said that the senior officers are all still in the infirmary, he overheard something about a call to the CDC and said he thought he heard a lieutenant say something about a possible contagion."
"Well, what kind of contagion?" Davis questioned.
"Yea, are they thinking like anthrax or something?" Louis asked. "Who are the patients?"
Johnson suddenly joined the conversation, "Well a contagion explains a lot, at least. That's why their faces were covered and all."
"And why it's minimal crew only in there," Coolbaugh added.
Sans nodded, "Yeah, well I still want to know who the people are."
Someone else heard him speak as the crowd started heading into the mess hall.
"They were sent out to investigate some kind of blip on the radar," the young man said.
"Yeah, we know that," Johnson responded.
The soldier's eyes grew wide with shock. He apparently thought he was delivering unknown information and couldn't understand how this small group of people knew what had happened.
"Yeah," Coolbaugh nodded.
"Really?"
"The blip showed up on his radar," she said pointing to Lewis.
Like an awe struck child, the private turned on a dime to face Sans, now trembling with anticipation of finding out new information. "What was it like? What happened!?"
Sans shrugged casually, unphased by the old news of the blip.
"It was just like...like a blip... lit up fast and was gone before I could blink."
"Whoa," the officer sounded thoroughly fulfilled as a soft smile crossed his lips. "A U.F.O."
"I guess so," Sans said, now sounding bored with the conversation.
"Do you know who the people are?"
"I know one guy is Patrick Morris, and then Tyrone said that his brother Jake never showed up
yesterday. I heard he went over to the infirmary asking if his brother was in there and they forced him out. Threatened to put him the brig if he didn't leave."
"Oh, man," Davis said solemnly. "I've got to talk to him."
Without another word he strode off into the mess area. Melinda and Louis watched him leave.
"They've all been friends since high school, Davis and Jake were in the same class, and Tyrone was
one year back from them." Melinda said with the same tone in her voice one might have while describing someone during their own funeral.
The morning sky blazed several shades of orange and a warm gentle breeze passed through the officers as their voices quieted down and they continued forth into the cafeteria, keeping to their schedules.
Davis sat with Tyrone at a bench near the back of the hall. Lewis noticed how obviously distraught he looked,
worrying over the fate of his older brother. His head was slung low and he didn't touch his food. Sans and the others
couldn't help but glance to the back of the room. They tried to keep their eyes on the trays in front of them, but the desire to gather information was too strong.
"Jeeze, what is going on in there?" Coolbaugh said with great emphasis on every word, clear frustration
in her voice.
"You know it'll all turn out to be nothin', watch." Johnson said as he shoved a spoonful of breakfast into his mouth. "They just do this because they can."
"All they're doing right now is causing stress and tension in their officers."
"This is the Army, Lewis. It's about stress and tension and following your orders."
"Oh yeah, and you're so great at that," Coolbaugh shot out.
"Hey, I didn't say you had to be good at it." He said with a cocky laugh.
Sans and Coolbaugh shared a much needed moment of laughter with Johnson, but the feeling drifted
away as three senior officers strolled into the cafeteria. Melinda nudged Lewis in the arm and nodded her head sideways towards the three officers.. The three men simply stood there for a moment before turning to the counter for some food.
"They know something," Sans said suspiciously. "They have to."
"Course they know, man," Johnson agreed, "but they're probably not going to fill us in."
They continued to rush through their meal with very little talk after that. In a few more minutes, they finished, stood, deposited their trays back and headed out of the building, all casting wary glares towards the infirmary as they separated ways and headed for their assignments.
Their morning played out routine as usual, with a morning jog and some training drills. Nothing was different and none of the officers in charge even cast an interested glance at the infirmary or acted like anything was wrong.
Sans couldn't help but feel that his commander was trying very hard to not look at the infirmary,
and that it showed in his eyes that there was great concern behind those walls. But then again, he shook his head slightly before pulling his chin up over the exercise bar one more time, perhaps he was over thinking it, and nothing at all was going on inside that building. He contented himself for a while with the thought that whether or not whatever had happened to those officers was good or bad, he would be informed on an as needed basis. For now, no news was no news, and that was all there was to it.
Sans focused on his training and drills until he had a break just before noon. He joined up with Lyle and they walked together to the hose and waited for a small crowd of sweaty, hot soldiers to finish soaking their heads to help cool down from the blazing sun and excessively hot temperatures. Sans flicked his wet hair and stood straight, casting a subconscious glance towards the infirmary.
"Holy shit, look!" Sans said quickly.
Davis swung his head around, patting his clean cut head dry with a bright white towel he had slung over his shoulder.
"Whoa!"
Tyrone Jameson was just disengaging from an excited hug with his brother as the two men looked across the base. Many people were flocking over to the infirmary as people emerged from the double doors of the unit. Curious and excited, their fellow officers overwhelmed the people and soon they broke off into smaller groups and headed off to different areas to tell the tale all had been eagerly waiting to hear.
Davis and Louis, soon joined by Johnson and Coolbaugh joined with Tyrone and his brother and a fair group of curious spectators, all asking in a hundred different ways just exactly what had happened as they headed off towards a less active area of the courtyard.
"It was weird, I don't know..." Jake hesitated. "I'm not really sure I can explain it." He looked into
the crowd and saw Lewis watching him eagerly.
"Hey Lewis, I heard you're the one that called it."
Sans just nodded, but many curious eyes turned to him and just as quickly started asking him about
the blip. Everyone wanted to know what is was like, and all seemed very disappointed with his description. After a moment the group all turned back to Jake prompting him once again to describe the events that had unfolded yearly yesterday morning.
"Well," he started and raised his eyebrows. "We got to the sight of the radar blip. You know, just to check it out, see what happened. There were eight of us in the group. They didn't tell us much on the way there, only that there had been an anomaly on the radar. We were all figuring it was going to be nothing, you know. Just some stupid drill in the middle of the night.
But when we got there..." he stopped. His eyes drifted off the to side and focused onto something
in between this world and the next.
"What was it?" One member of the crowd had said.
"What happened?" Another eager listener asked.
"Bro, you okay?" Tyler asked of his older brother. He waited for a moment before tapping
him lightly on the shoulder. The entire audience around Jake seemed to hold their breath as they waited for him
to continue his story.
"Yeah, sorry, I'm fine...really. It's just weird. I don't really know what happened." Jake said with a deep swallow. He seemed very uncertain and maintained a distant look in his eyes.
"What do you mean?" His brother asked of him.
He shook his head and tried to pull his mind together. He subconsciously tipped his hat around for
a moment.
"Jake, what happened to your head?" Davis asked suddenly, noticing a deep cut just under the edge of the hat when it was jostled about on the officer's head.
Calling attention to the man's head, all eyes gazed upon it. Jake suddenly looked weak and shaky as he removed the hat to the gasp of the crowd and his brother.
"Oh my God, Jake, what did this to you?" Tyrone asked with great concern.
"It was...some...something." He took a deep breath. "Some kind of animal is what he said," he
responded.
"Who said? What kind of animal would do this?" Tyrone insisted as Jake replaced his cap.
"We went out to the sight of the radar blip," Jake started again, more secure in his voice, as though determined to finish the tale.
He did hesitate for a moment before continuing. "I'm not even sure I'm supposed to be talking about it, they didn't say, so... I guess."
"Anyway, we arrived there at zero three fifty hours. Seven of us went out to investigate and Patrick
stayed on radio."
"Patrick Morris?" Someone in the crowd confirmed.
Jake nodded and continued.
"Yeah, we didn't really find much. I mean we were all ready to take down terrorists or something, but we kind of figured it would be nothing too, right. So, well, we walk in a little bit through the woods. We were just at the edge of the city. There was this weird smell, kind of smelled a bit like a jet engine or something. Like lots of gas and burning. Trees were broken down.
Big trees, too. Just snapped in half. So we figured it was probably for sure a plane that had gone down. But there really wasn't any wreckage. We just found a little spot in the woods, maybe twenty feet around, that was burned up pretty bad. In the middle of the clearing there was thing piece of machinery. It really looked
a lot like an ATV but it definitely had tank treads. Freakiest looking this I've ever seen. Never seen nothin' like it you know. So, we go in to investigate, and I remember seeing these things.
I don't know what they were, but they were kind of fallen onto the ground from the ATV thing.
They were big." He gestured to a point higher than his knee. Jake was a tall man, the level he indicated was about three feet off the ground. "They were really weird. Seven of them. Seven eggs."
"Eggs?" Someone in the crowd repeated with exasperation.
"What do you mean, eggs?" Tyrone asked with a frown.
"I've never heard of an egg that big," Johnson added.
"Well, they weren't like real eggs." Jake tried to explain. He paused dramatically, scanning his
own mind to find the right words to describe what he was seen.
"No they were eggs. They looked kind of soft, not like a hard eggshell. More like leather hide
really tall eggs. They had to be eggs because I remember them hatching. The tops of them unfolded like leaves or petals or somethin'. We could all see something moving inside."
He paused for a moment, a deep distant frown upon his face as his hand reached as though on its
own around to the back of his, gently coddling the wounds on his scalp.
"I don't really remember much. It was real quiet, you know, nothing really made any noise. I bent
over to see what was in the eggs, but I don't... I don't remember a damned thing after that. Nothing, man. I'm sorry. I just know I woke up in the infirmary, and I was told that Patrick said I was... said we all were... attacked by some kind of animals that came out the eggs. Nobody really remembers much. They were all attacked as the eggs hatched. I guess whatever the animals were wouldn't let go cause they hauled us all back here with those things on our faces they said."
"They were on your faces?" Coolbaugh repeated. "What did they do to you?"
"Nothin'. They didn't do anything to any of us, 'cept put some gashes on all our heads. We're all fine. We're off duty for a day or two to recover, but they said we check out fine. Docs just said our lungs are little harsh, but they figure it was from not being able to breath right for... what... I guess twelve or thirteen hours." He shrugged and fell quiet.
It really didn't sound like an impressive story, but that was all there was to tell. He felt more than
a little silly for being the first one to stick his face up to the leathery eggs the group found in the woods, but he was glad nothing significant had happened to him or his comrades.
"When did you come round?" Sans asked.
"Umm... I woke up last night I guess. We all did. They kept us in there overnight to evaluate us. They were afraid we might be infectious or something, treated us like biohazards. They had to make sure we were decontaminated before they even thought about letting us go. But we're all fine. Tired a little maybe, but we're all alright."
As the others asked a few more questions of him and discussed the story that they had just heard
with him and amongst themselves, Jake grew tired. He coughed a few times and decided it was probably best to get some rest. The activity of being up and walking and story telling was somewhat exhausting.
"Look, Ty, I'm gonna go lay down, kay? I'm really kind of tired." Jake said, clearing his throat one
more time.
"Yeah bro, go rest. I'll get you in a few hours."
"Sounds good." Jake started away towards the barracks, but was called back by his brother.
"I'm glad you're okay." Tyrone said smiling slightly.
"Thanks man." Jake said and walked off.
On his way to the barracks he saw another of his team mates headed the same way, looking equally as tired as he felt. He exchanged a quick greeting and the two walked into the unit together, headed to their rooms and laid down.
Shock and confusion filled the base, but also a sense of relief knowing the group that was attacked was no worse for wear. The attitude of the base had lightened up significantly. The majority of people spent their day wildly discussing the stories they had all been treated to. Other officers in Jake's group were able to give slightly more details of the animals.
They described the egg hatchlings as being some sort of crab like animal with a long whip-like tail. One of the last men to suffer an attack explained that the animals simply leapt from the leathery sacks in which they came and clinged on to the faces of their victims as though they knew exactly what to do. The creatures were described as acting so quickly, so instinctively, it was like they had been attacking humans with great proficiency for hundreds of years. No one, however, could ever recall a single instance of this type of attack in the past.
Everyone was glad though that their friends were back with no serious injuries, just some scratched up heads and a bit of rattled consciences. The day soon returned to normal; duty ships and training drills as usual. Routine was comforting, and Lewis found that especially helpful today, as life continued to return to normal.
He headed out for a jog. He enjoyed exercise, keeping fit, learning new weapons. Military life suited him, he thought. He was only twenty, but had already learned more than he ever thought he could about himself and life. Though he had only been enlisted for just barely over five months, he was certain that with time, he could work his way up to being a senior officer as well. It seemed as good a goal as any.
Melinda was just as enthusiastic about the military as he. She was a strong woman, very pretty, with her short cut reddish hair adding definition to her fine cheek bones and brown eyes. He knew that she and Johnson, while on the outside always made snappy remarks to one another and seemed to be uninterested in one another, really liked each other deep down, but he still hoped there might be a chance for him. Just maybe.
As his mind drifted a little in the hot afternoon sun, Sans idly gazed across the base while he jogged, watching several more officers, who obviously had not heard the tale of what took place listen intently to another of the group of seven tell the story. It was quickly becoming old news, though. Most of the base had heard the story by now.
But there were still many details of the officers' experiences that didn't make much sense at all.
What was the tank treaded ATV? Where did it come from? How were large trees around the area broken clean in two, and why was it in an area just outside a major city? Terrorists would surely have struck dead center in the city, and more likely than not, during daylight hours to cause the most panic and fear. What were the animals the officers had talked about? How did that blip on his radar monitor appear, Lewis thought.
So many questions poured into his mind all at once. Early this morning he was craving answers
to about the people in the infirmary. Now that he had those answers, he sought more. All the officers were fine, and all the fretting that he, and probably mostly everyone on the base, did the entire day yesterday was over nothing. But he did feel that there was still some cause for concern, not necessarily for the men that had been attacked, but just over the general mysterious surrounding the vehicle and the three foot tall leather eggs carrying face-attacking crab monsters.
Another rush of questions soared into his mind as he approached Coolbaugh jogging before him. From the corner of his eye he saw a private that he recognized as being amongst the attackees jogging towards him on the track. Sans thought his skin looked awfully pale.
He was jogging slowly and grew ever slower as he crept closer towards him. Lewis could hear a very harsh sound and it took him a moment to realize that it was the man's breathing as he bent over, resting his hands on his knees and hanging his head low. He began to cough and gasp for air and Sans ran to his side just behind Coolbaugh. Several others nearby jolted over to help.
Sans knelt down next to the young man. He couldn't have been more than nineteen. His skin was
turning a sickly white, his eyes were rolled back into his head and he was gripping the ground tightly and trying desperately to breath.
As several others ran over to his aid as well, the young officer began to contort and moan loudly, coughing heavily. Someone shouted for a medic as another voice in the group suggested that he was having a seizure. Sans felt his heart skip several beats then speed up. Suddenly fear rushed back into him. This man was not alright at all.
Coolbaugh ran off the field calling as loud as she could for a medic and suddenly the entire base seemed to jump into action.
"Hurry!" Lewis called to her as he watched her leave the field, a mild wave of panic trying hard to take hold.
He kept his eye to her as she shot off quickly. Suddenly Coolbaugh's shouting voice faded and Sans
looked beyond her to see three other people lying on the ground in the same fashion. Frantic officers were running to their aid, and medics began to dash out of the infirmary. As a stunned Melinda turned with wide eyes back to Lewis and the others, Sans heard the man he was kneeling next to moan and holler horribly and then felt something warm and wet hit his turned face. Lewis saw blood everywhere, felt it running down his face. The other men gasped.
"Jesus, what's happening to him?" Someone shouted.
Sans scanned the man's body for the source of the blood. His entire shirt and vest was soaked black with blood and the man's chest was raising furiously. He was bleeding out his mouth and nose and spraying it with every forced breath, cough, and moan. At first glance Lewis thought the man was extending his lungs as much as he could for air, but he very quickly realized that the officer he was holding an arm of, had stopped moving. His eyes were locked in place, half way rolled back into his ghostly white blood spattered face, mouth gaping open from one final shriek of fear and pain. The officer was dead.
Sans' eyes looked down from the man's face. His chest was still contorting wildly. It looked as though something was trying to raise out from within the dead boy's rib cage. In a moment, a loud crunching and ripping sound filled the ears of the officers that were still pinning the dead body to the ground.
It was the sound of shattering bone and tearing skin. With one quick motion, a sickly creature emerged from the officer's chest, hissing and teetering about, covered in the officer's own blood. Sans' eyes fixed upon the metallic looking teeth in the snakey creature's mouth. He couldn't move. He was paralyzed with shock and fear. The other men jumped up shouting, and someone yanked Lewis back hard.
"Move!"
"Jesus!"
"What the hell is that?!"
"What is going on!"
The men in the group shouted all at once, unable to remove their eyes from the horrid creature
that had emerged from the chest of their fallen friend. The monstrous little thing burst from the officer's chest and bolted off, its little tail whipping around behind it.
Fearless, it shot directly underneath a stunned nearby officer that was dripping with fresh blood and nearly as pale as the man on the ground. He was so stunned by all that had just transpired he didn't even react to the creature that bolted with incredible speed under his legs as the men around jumped sideways to get away from the ferocious snakelike animal.
The thing disappeared in another instant behind the command center at the edge of the field, probably headed for the trees just a few feet beyond.
Sans felt utterly ill. Although he did not want them to, his eyes maintained a hazy focus on the gaping hole in the young man's chest on the ground before his feet. He heard someone next to him begin to vomit. Coolbaugh slapped her hand onto his shoulder, tears in her eyes.
"Lewis?" she roused him from his frozen state of shock.
"Jesus, Melinda..." he said as he finally turned his eyes from the man's body.
She looked pale too and he could feel her hand trembling upon his shoulder. Sans turned slowly
back to the courtyard and tried to keep himself together as his eyes moved from one dead body to another.
Tyrone, who Sans didn't even really notice was standing next to him suddenly shot his head in the
direction of the barracks.
"Oh, God, Jake!" He shouted and bolted off towards the barrack unit.
Without any words, several other men followed and Sans and Coolbaugh took off after a slight delay, running quick to catch up. They reached the barracks.
Tyrone shot down the hallway, he slipped out from his own feet as he tore around a corner. Regaining his balance he slammed through the door of his brother's room. Sans and Coolbaugh were just getting into the building, following up the small crowd.
Hysterical and disbelieving screaming echoed through the halls and past the officers piled in it. So loud they were that they drowned out the sounds of the alarms that were now ringing their call to all officers. Two men pulled Jameson to his feet and dragged him out his brother's room away from the sight of blood and broken bones. Officers were piling into the courtyard while medics rushed to clean the bodies up from sight.
A large frightened group of soldiers did their best to keep their composure as they stood in attention facing a group of commanding officers before them. It seemed that even their higher ranks didn't know what to say or think about this. They too looked shaken and fearful. A tense silence filled the area until finally someone, still panicked from fright shouted out.
"What the hell are those things Lieutenant?"
"Here's what we know, folks. And it isn't much."
Desperate for answers, the soldiers hushed. The lieutenant waited for a moment, eyes watching
another officer pacing back and forth with a telephone pressed firmly to his ear. He suddenly nodded to the lieutenant and all eyes left him and focused back onto their commander.
"We're not the only ones reporting this... incident. We're finding out now that these things are showing
up all over. We weren't the only base to see odd things on their instruments early Saturday morning. We are not sure exactly how wide spread this is, but we do know that at least a dozen more areas have been affected."
"Just near Virginia, Sir?" Sans asked quickly, speaking out of turn and interrupting, but that didn't
seem to matter much to him.
The lieutenant shook his head as he unfolded a small sheet of paper.
"Pennsylvania, Georgia, Louisiana, New Mexico, California, North Carolina, and here in Virginia so far. All these states are now reporting encounters with these eggs and the animals that would hatch from them. In some cases there are multiple locations throughout each of these states."
Anger and tension welled high in the group of soldiers as their commander continued to brief them with
what little information he was offering. Sans couldn't help but idly wonder if they knew more than what was being fed to the soldiers. He did not know if that was true or not, but he did know one thing for certain, the fear and panic that these things would bring with them would be more widespread than the animal itself. As the lieutenant finished his lecture, Sans tried to quell his queasy gut, but the thought of war on the horizon weighed heavily in his mind.
When the briefing was finished, several officers shot their hands up in the air.
"What is this, Q&A?" The agitated lieutenant snapped.
A woman in the very front stepped just a few inches closer the lieutenant's podium, "Sir, please,
Sir, do we know where they came from?"
The hurly commanding officer pursed his lips.
"No," he said simply, clearly, and unquestionably.
He could read the looks of confusion and fright on the faces of the many soldiers before him and added, "Look, we have no other option at the moment than to assume that this was some kind of terrorist attack."
Several heads nodded. Sans wanted to believe it too, but it was suddenly becoming harder to accept that as the truth. He lightly touched Coolbaugh's elbow and whispered into her ear.
"How could terrorists deposit these animals across the entire country, show up on every radar,
and pull off without being caught?"
Coolbaugh frowned, shrugged and shook her head.
Sans sighed deeply. He was going to continue, but the words his lieutenant spoke next caught his, and everyone else's attention.
"We're going to find these little bastards and eradicate them. Now."
The hush that swept over the officers was tangible. Although everyone was agitated, certain something major was on the horizon, it was obvious by the still silence that no one wanted to be the first to dare to venture out into the woods to find and kill the chest-bursting little monsters. However, on that note, the lieutenant gave up the podium to another commander who began with the mission briefing. They would start with the woods that surrounded their scenic base, and hunt down the seven hatchlings, or as many of them as they could find.
Sans and his assigned team headed off to gear up. He watched silently as his friends, split onto other teams also geared up in other lines. They received extra weapons, an extra vest, along with other standard issue supplies in their back pack. This would be a walking mission, and they would probably not come back until it was deemed that the mission was complete.
Seven teams in total, one team for each of the little monsters, were armed and ready to depart in just about fifteen minutes. Sans swallowed deeply as his troop was first to march off into the woods. No one had any idea if the creatures would be easy or hard to find, nor did they really even know where the little animals had disappeared to. The thought crossed several officers' minds as all the units, flowed out in different directions that it was possible not all of the animals took to hiding in the woods.
While four of the affected people died out in the open, on the exercise field, in the courtyard, in the paths between some of the base's buildings, three more had died behind closed doors; two in their barracks, and one in front of a computer at an empty desk in an empty room.
No witnesses were present to see which direction those creatures had run off in. It was possible that they were hiding in the base itself. Sans glanced back to the base just before it left his view entirely. He could see more armed soldiers taking to guard, defenses were going to higher levels. He did see several armed men enter the barracks building intently. He nodded to himself. The base was being searched.
The units soon fell out of view as the team of soldiers jogged into the woods. No one dared speak. What would be said was already on everyone's mind: how would they find their targets, and what were they in the first place? It did not need to be spoken. They simply had to search the woods. Sans scanned the ground for any type of slithery track, but the leaf cover and twigs and branches and low bushes would provide perfect cover for a creature that was barely three feet long.
The team searched aimlessly for over three hours. The only thing they had managed to find was, indeed, another of the search teams. Spirits were low and frustration was high as the two groups consulted with each other quietly and briefly, then parted ways again, separating off to cover more terrain. Sans moved off with his group, staying close to the side of one of his fellow officers.
"This is crazy," the man whispered so quietly Sans had to hold his breath to hear him speak. "We're not going to find this thing. It's like trying to find a needle in a haystack."
Sans did not respond. He was sure that the officer was probably right, but none the less, search was what they would do, despite the notion that the hunt might turn out to be a waste of time. As they came to a resting point after about another two hours of careful, quiet searching, Lewis wondered what possible dangers the little beasts would offer. They had already proven fatal, he thought. What would the snake-like things they were hunting prove to be exactly? Night time swooped in quicker than usual, leaving the groups searching by spot light, each man in each unit holding their breath and trying to tiptoe over sticks and rocks without drawing any unwanted attention.
As his group halted for a rest, Sans watched a stream brisk by as he bit into some rations and listened to the officers next to him talk quietly.
"Terrorists. I don't believe it."
"What's not to believe? They're capable of anything, I swear."
"Where in the hell did they find these things?" The two men started.
"And how did they manage to deliver them without being stopped," Sans added in, keeping his eyes focused on the running water.
"Yeah, that too," the officer whispered. "Hey, Lewis," he said, reading Lewis's name insignia. "Did I hear that you saw the radar blip?"
He nodded. "Yeah, I saw it."
"Well, shit, what happened?"
Sans shook his head and frowned, still watching the stream run by.
"That's what doesn't make sense," he whispered. "The blip flew on to the screen, lit up quick, and blew right off. It …it was so fast." He paused for a moment and turned to the two men next to him.
"What kind of plane would a terrorist have that would be capable of dropping off an ATV full of eggs in over a dozen sites and only show up on radar for a second? I don't see how it's related, yet it has to be."
"Well there's a lot of ways, I guess," one officer raised his eyebrows. "Radar jamming devices...maybe they have a stealth plane or something."
"Something just doesn't make sense," Sans still maintained.
"Well, where do you think they came from, then?" The other officer asked.
Lewis shook his head, "I don't know, but this just doesn't feel right." He put his eyes back to the water, watching the light from the spot lights flicker across the ripples on the dark glassy surface.
"I wonder if we're going to press on throughout the night or return to base?" one of the officers said as he stood up.
"Do you really want to sleep with those creepy little things out here somewhere?" the other one asked.
"It's all good, I've got myself covered," the man responded, tapping his gun slightly and smiling.
The rest of the group was talking quietly amongst themselves. Sans glanced over them, reading deeply into the uneasiness across most of their faces. He dropped his head for a moment, wrestling still with the confusing thoughts and myriad of questions that continued to stream into his mind. He set his eyes back again up the water and watched it flow quickly away from him. Suddenly, an odd glossy shimmer in the water caught the corner of his eye.
It was not flashlight bouncing off the water, there was something in the water, breaking the smooth surface. It was drifting away quickly with the flow of the shallow stream. Sans leapt up, grabbing the attention of everyone nearby.
"What is that?" He said, pointing. The ill-defined thing flowed right past him and without a second thought he jogged quickly down the shore to catch it. For a moment as he reached his hand out, he thought it looked like a body, but as he pulled it out, he was sure there was no way it was ever a human body.
The group of officers all huddled around as he laid the sopping thing on the ground. Whatever it was, it appeared to be semi-transparent, with only the faintest hints of whitish color to it. Another person, questioning what it was reached forward and fidgeted with the unusual object.
"It's thick," he said. "It feels like... almost like plastic or something."
"It's probably just garbage," the commander in charge said briskly casting the object no more attention.
Someone else now had knelt down and continued to move the object around, a determined frown upon his face. He looked as though he was trying to solve a rubix cube. He did not look up, nor question the translucent object, nor add his thoughts until he was absolutely certain.
"Look," he said with certainty, "I owned a bunch of snakes. I'm telling you this is a molted skin."
Sans felt his pulse increase. He stared at it there on the ground before him. Somehow, although none of this made any sense at all to Lewis, he knew deep down that the officer was right. This was a skin. But certainly not from a snake, at least not from the snake like animals they were chasing. The skin he had pulled out of the water was just about as large as he was. It was the same size as a human being. The things they were hunting down were about the size of a writhing baseball bat.
"Look, there's a tail," the officer said quickly to the stunned group of soldiers around him.
All eyes followed the man's finger as he traced the outline of a thick tail.
"How can this be a skin?" Another officer said. "There's nothing that big, there's no snake that big."
"We really don't know what we're chasing down...what if... what if..." the officer started as he stood up from the sopping wet skin.
"What if what?" Someone else cut him off. "What if the little thing we all started out chasing grew up big and strong?"
"All I'm saying is it is possible. We really don't know what these things are."
Sans kept his eyes locked onto the shedded skin on the ground.
"He's right," he said plainly, as though he had known this all along. "He's right."
All eyes glanced from Sans to their leader. Tension quickly mounted. They were all afraid, and the look on their commander's face offered them no guide, no support and no directives. He was equally frightened and unprepared for the expedition. The officers in his troop gave him a questioning look. It was a look for which he had no answers. It was a look that was asking, 'what should we do?'
A loud howl startled all the members of the search time, adding to the intense fear the already felt. Several people aimed their rifles instinctively in the direction of the screeching sound.
"It's just an owl guys, relax." Someone said easily.
Lewis couldn't help but to scan the woods around them. There were trees to his right, left, and behind him. They were not terribly thick trees. The unit wasn't trying to forge a patch through untamed jungle. This was a forest, not far off at all from a camping area. The entire area was about as scenic as scenery could get. Tall, thick trees filled the area for endless miles. Paths had been made through the trees, for training and exercise as well as recreation.
In front of Sans was the gentle stream. It was not deep, nor very wide. One good leap and someone could jump clean across, but they would land on more rocks that rose up quickly along the hillside. The hill flattened out after a short, steep incline, where one would find a long path carved through the large ancient rocks that gave the woods their character. Sans evaluated the hill for a moment. His mind told him the rocks would make a perfect hiding place. There were crevices deep and wide enough for a person to slip into, and black enough for hordes of bats to nestle in during the bright days to escape the light. Slowly he slid over to his commander, noticing that he too was scanning the countryside. The look in his eyes told Sans that he was fearing the area too.
"Sir, we are in danger here, Sir." Lewis whispered firmly to his commander.
He had tried to keep his voice low, but with the others in such close proximity, their eyes grew wide and their guns pointed around as they heard Sans words.
"Uhh..." the commander muttered. He fumbled at his waist for his radio to call back to base.
Raising the microphone to his face, he pressed the button and said nothing.
"Sir?" Sans asked quickly.
"Hello? Is someone there? What's going on? Who's there. Identify yourself." The voice on the other end of the radio started.
Once again the commander pressed the button. "Umm... this is squad one-one-one. We may have...we may have found something."
"What did you find? What are your coordinates?"
Another person in the unit immediately unfurled a paper, a map of the area, and plotted their exact coordinates. He darted over the commander and pointed to the pencil marks he had just made. The commander took the map and glanced down, a look of extreme uncertainty on his face. He quickly shot a glance back at the skin still lying limp and empty on the ground.
"We are at..." he swallowed. Sans could see his hands shaking as he glanced back at the paper to read out the coordinates.
Before he could speak another loud shriek echoed out through the trees, startling the men near the shore of the stream. They all jumped and several yelled out as they swung their guns in every direction, uncertain from where the shriek had arisen.
"Oh God, what was that?" The commanding officer said, not even realizing he still had the button depressed.
Sans looked from him to the woods and back again. "Sir, I really think we need to get out of here, Sir."
"Quiet yourself private, you're spooking the men!" The commander snapped.
"Hell, we're already spooked," one of the men said, an unsteady hand vibrating his rifle as it pointed towards the trees.
"Silence!" The commander warned again.
"Squad, what is your coordinates?" The voice on the radio demanded.
The commander pressed the button in again and glanced back at the paper.
"JESUS!" An officer shrieked and gunfire blared out through the woods.
"Get outta here!" Sans shouted as loud as he could over the sounds of frantic gunfire from three people.
He wasn't sure what they were shooting at. He did not see anything, but he knew they needed to leave immediately.
"Sir! Sir!" He begged his commander, "We must get out of here!"
Finally, the commander made a firm decision, calling for everyone to fall back as quick as they could.
Without delay, the men shot back down the trail. As they ran, Lewis couldn't help but feel that they were being followed, pursued. From time to time he would glance back over his shoulder. He had two men behind him, four in front. They were all shouting. The commander was trying to call into the radio as he ran. They came to a fork in the road and some started to the right, others went left.
"No! This way!" Sans shouted from the left side of the fork. "This way!"
The excited men bolted through the trees to join up with the other officers on the correct path. Lewis quickly turned his head to check on their progress as he and the two others darted down the trail.
Without thinking, he stopped in his tracks. There were only three men scrambling up the manicured trail. He could not see the squad's commanding officer. Uncertain of why he stopped, another man stopped alongside Lewis.
"What are you doing?" he asked quickly.
Sans stared onto the dark path expecting to see the commander come at any moment.
He did see something move from behind the trees. He could not make it out through the darkness, but it appeared as black as the shadows themselves. A loud hissing sound rose out from between the trees and Lewis was sure he could hear the sound of thumping feet running after them.
"Go!" Said the soldier next to him as he stood his ground and let gunfire pour out from the mouth of his weapon into the darkness.
"GO!"
Lewis turned and bolted, striving to catch up with the others that were now well ahead of him. He glanced over his shoulder; fearful curiosity driving him to look. The other officer had begun to move backwards as quickly as he could, maintaining fire at the trail in front of him, then he just fell.
Lewis squinted his eyes for a moment against the dark. Something was attacking the fallen officer. Something large and black and shiny. Its hide reflected in the glow of the spotlight. A satanic shriek rose from its mouth, piercing the night air and Lewis's body.
Without a second thought, he turned on his heels and bolted off down the pass with speed he didn't even know he possessed. His body was running full blast on adrenaline. He caught up with his group after some distance. Another wild shriek filled the woods and the remaining soldiers jumped with fright and turned to face the woods. Suddenly screams from another unit followed immediately by wild gunfire rang out through the trees. Five men stood in a circle, backs to one another, each shaking uncontrollably, their weapons jostling in their rattled hands.
"We need to keep moving." Sans said through clenched jaws. "We need to get back to the base. Keep moving," he reemphasized.
"Oh God," someone responded. "Oh God!"
The men turned. Something was emerging from the woods. The gunfire that echoed over the treetops began to die down, and only a few horrible screams of fear from the men and women sent out to search the woods for the little creatures were heard fading out until all fell quiet.
From the growing darkness between the trees a terrible sight began to take shape. Shiny black, the animal that emerged from the tree line out into the path in front of the men was no bear, nor dog, nor other woodly creature. It moved on four legs, but it was like no Earthly creature Lewis or any of the men had even so much as envisioned in their wildest nightmares.
It was not a man, but it did bear most it weight onto two large, heavily taloned hind legs. Its forearms groped the ground as it crept slowly forward, hissing from his long, slender head. Lewis stared at the horrible thing.
The whole night seemed to have crept to into slow motion. The monster moved towards them, its long barbed tail swishing behind it. The thing's tail alone was as long as any of the men that stood before it. The creature looked like some kind of shiny black twisted and contorted dinosaur that had crawled up from ancient pit of hell.
"Jesus Christ!" One shaken officer shouted.
In response, the dragon-like animal shrieked loudly, curling its black lips back to reveal a set of metallic looking teeth. The thing opened its mouth wide, tossed its head from side to side, and howled a call of death into the warm summer night air.
One of the men in front of Sans fired his gun madly at the black animal which promptly leapt with great ease off to the side, clenched hold of a tree and dove straight into the group. The men jumped back, shouting out with fear.
The closest man to the animal yelled wildly as the thing turned on him. It hissed savagely and, undeterred by the weapon fire, it charged right into the young officer, slamming him to the ground. He screamed at the top of his lungs and tried to wrestle himself loose from the large black creature that completely overshadowed him. In a moment, the man silenced and stopped moving.
"Run," Sans said quickly. "RUN!"
They could have stayed to fight, but that officer had fired off nearly an entire clip at the black monster and either he missed with every single shot, or the animal's hide was bulletproof. In either case, standing their ground did not seem like a good way to survive the next several minutes.
The four men all ran as absolutely quickly as they could. They ran so hard so fast that they had covered the entire trail back to the base in less than hour. Sans wasn't sure exactly at what point he had realized the black animal had no longer been in pursuit of them, but it didn't matter.
They were panicked, had limited weapons, no commander, and no radio, so the smartest place they could be right was back at the base. They stopped hard at the edge of the woods that bordered the exercise field. Massive amounts of gunfire filled their ears, accompanied by the all too familiar sounds of terrified men screaming for their lives.
"Oh my God," Sans muttered.
Under the lights of the base, he and the group with him could see panicked officers firing in nearly all directions. As the four men trotted across the field, Sans could see hints, shadows, looming after images of the monstrous black animals pass in and out of sight. He did see man after man drop to the ground. They reached the courtyard just as the base fell quiet.
The stench of gunpowder and some sort of sulfuric smell whisked by their nostrils as they knelt down to see who was alive and who was not. Davis Lyle saw Lewis coming through the cluttered space and jogged over to him. Sans was quietly evaluating a hole that had been cleaned through the pavement he was standing on.
"What the hell happened?" Sans asked as he saw his friend approach.
It was a foolish question. He knew exactly what had taken place. He had experienced it in the woods just a short time ago.
"Where's Melinda and Tyler?" Davis asked in response to Lewis's question.
Just then more gunfire echoed out over the trees in the distance and the base reverberated with the terrified screams of more troops still trapped in the woods.