From the top of cooling tower, the flash of the motion flare is a sudden surprise that cast long shadows over the rain drenched asphalt. Bella hasn't bothered trying to provide cover as the rest of the team moves between the trees, but the bright light finally allows her to key on a position. She shifts her rifle over slightly and, through the sight, can just make out the half-formed shape of the wampus through the trees.
"Sonuvabitch," Emmett groans through the radio. "I was fucking looking back."
"Take a second," Edward responds.
Bella sighs, shoving the water pooling beneath her with a hand. It flies over the edge of the tower, mixing with the falling rain. They weren't suppose to split up. She appreciates why. She would rather not be hundreds of feet in the air at sunrise, but this wasn't the plan.
Thick steam billows with her heavy breathing. The abandoned parking lot below her is a single, abysmal black pool of inch-high water. A talon anxiously taps her gun.
"Damn, those things are bright," Emmett says with a furious whisper, a palm pressed tight against his squinting eyes.
"You okay?" Edward asks, remaining a few yards away and continuing to scan the darkness around them.
"Yeah," Emmett says. "Let's go."
The continue trudging on. After a few hundred yards, the loud, scratching sound of a mountain lion caterwaul pierces the night.
"Wampus," Emmett says, continuing forward as Edward glances back.
A low, grumbling roar that shakes the woods around them rolls through.
"Jacob."
Edward takes a deep breath as he follows Emmett towards the plant. Through the thinning trees, the cloud-shrouded moon reflects off the soaked parking lot, thousands of ripples reflecting as the rain falls. He tries not to second-guess leaving Jacob behind. Letting him transform so early in the mission.
The brush crushes loudly as Emmett crouches a few yards inside the treeline. His eyes narrow, his breath slows, as he scans the abandoned plant two football fields away. Ahead, a set of four buildings, each coupled with a small spherical tower, stand north of the massive steam pipe. Past them, in the far distance, a long row of rusted metal storage buildings wrap around the east and southern border of the facility. The sporadic red flash of the beacon overhead cast a dim, blood-colored haze over it all with every blink.
Edward raises his rifle and peers down the scope. In the darkness, he can just make out the numbers on the closest building.
"D-22," he whispers over the radio. "We can get in to the tunnels through there."
"Which one is that?" Emmett asks. His voice matches Edward's breathless seriousness.
"Marking," Edward says. With a quick flick of his hand, he turns on the laser mounted to the barrel of his rifle while continuing to peer down his sites. The red dot appears centered in his crosshairs. He outlines the letter D with the beam.
"Marked."
"Bella," Edward says as Emmett moves from the trees. "Signal when you have us."
Through her scope, Bella scans along the trees until she makes out Emmett kneeling and exposed. Her deformed cheek stays on her weapon as she reaches down to the flashlight by her waist. Two quick burst of light surround her, and she sees Emmett start moving slowly across the lot. A moment later, Edward follows in to the night air. Her crosshairs bounce deliberately between them.
The water rises above the toe of their boots, sloshing over the rainfall with every step. They keep a tactical distance between them, Edward in the rear as Emmett heads directly for D-22. Their feet grow clammy as the water seeps between their boot laces, soaking their socks.
A third of the way across, the storm intensifies. The rain beats loudly around them, a steady buzz of noise that makes it hard to think. It hammers into them from above.
Her focus hoping between the two of them, Bella struggles to decipher the image through the torrential rain and continuing darkness. Her chin juts forward and thick. A glimpse of a shadow passes between them, she thinks. It's hard to be sure. She fucking hates this.
Another shadow, circling between Edward and Emmett. She's positive now. No longer watching the men, her crosshairs center on the shapeless masses. They're almost imperceptible against the black water, but they move with Edward and Emmett. Darkness beneath darkness.
The trailing mass stops, allowing Edward to pass it. Bella's heart pounds as it starts to appear. It moves like an alligator, it's eyes just sitting above the inches-high water. Water-logged and emaciated, it rises higher. Its human form discolored, black, white, blue. With a spectral appearance, it simply watches as Edward and Emmett walk away. Water falls from its palm, before turning through the air and morphing into a small tomahawk.
Her heart beating in her chest echoes off the concrete below her. Focus, she thinks. The intersecting lines in her optics sit on the creature's throat. They're in the water. She takes a breath. Don't panic. A flash of lighting makes the anada shine momentarily. They're in the water. It raises the ax, and moves ahead, its feet never rising out of the massive puddle.
Her single shot rings through the night, followed by a loud splash as the anada loses its form.
Edward spins around, his rifle to his cheek as he aims at empty air. Large ripples of water emanate from where the creature stood.
"I got nothing."
Emmett, weapon up, moves backwards until he is besides Edward. He then spins, verifying that nothing is there.
"Bella must be bored," he says, lowering his rifle. "Let's go."
Together, they face the facility and see the second anada taking shape from the shallow water. A human face and moon-white eyes that seem to glow in the night. Unending streams of water form hair that runs off its head and down its thin frame. A silvery tomahawk glistens in its hand.
"Fuck," Edward says as the anada bares its sharpened teeth. He and Emmett quickly bring their weapons up as the creature begins gliding towards them.
Another loud bang from Bella's rifle, and the monster splashes away.
Neither man says a word as they immediately begin running to their destination. Each step throws a wall of water before them, surrounding them with noise. Soaked leather screams at their movement. The ARMS hum increases with their speed.
Emmett curses as an anada's hand appears from the water, its nails clenching his calf. The creature explodes up, causing Emmett to flip around in the air. All the air in his chest escapes him as he crashes on to the drenched asphalt. His vision blurs with water and pain. The anada's claws dig deeper into his muscles as it rears back the tomahawk to strike the dazed soldier.
Edward turns and fires immediately in to the creatures chest. It glances up and does nothing, the bullet passing harmlessly through its chest. Another shot. Another.
A burst of blood as the ax comes hard on to the Emmett's shoulder, the crimson thinning in the water.
The explosion of Bella's rifle. The anada looks up in annoyance before dropping the hatchet again on to the stuggling Emmett.
The epiphany hits Edward with the lightning cracking above. They're made of water.
Edward feels the death-cold hands of the second creature wrenching him forward. He hits the pavement hard, the rough surface beneath the water scratching his forearms as he braces against his fall. The cool, stagnant water fills his nose and eyes as the creature submerges his face. He hears his heart beat. Feels his blood rush within him.
He focuses on his pack. Reaching in to a side pocket he feels the plastic rectangle. His finger brushes the metal leads. His lungs begin to burn. The rapid-fire click of electricity is muffled under the falling rain. He stabs the taser into the anada's arm. A unworldly, distorted wail of a tortured man. The pressure on his back is gone as the creature explodes in to steam.
His chest on fire, he forces himself out of the water and rushes to Emmett. The anada straddles him, its teeth ripping in to Emmett's shoulder as he futile attempts to stab the creature in the side. Tattattattatta. The taser hits the monsters watery skin and it vaporizes.
"Grab your weapon," Edward says, thrusting Emmett's rifle into his chest. He averts his eye from the multiple violet and red gashes along his shoulder and chest. He ignores the splinters of collar bone that dot his uniform. Gripping the strap atop Emmett's tactical vest, blood warms his hand as it flows from Emmett's wounds. His exo-suit whirs loudly over the grinding drag as he quickly pulls the injured Emmett the rest of the way across the water. His rifle bangs painfully against his knees and thighs. With frantic eyes, he watches the splashing water around him with the taser in his outstretched hands.
Breathless, angry, and scared, Edward drops Emmett as he yanks him from the pooling water of the parking lot and on to the overgrown grass surrounding D-22. Circling the immediate area with anxious stomps, he bites his tongue while looking for standing water, doorways, anywhere where an anada could be hiding.
"You ruined my boots," Emmett says, sitting up to explore the torn and ripped leather on heel and outside of his feet.
"Did you know they're made of water?" Edward asks, composing himself. Emmett's ingratitude is expected and Edward's mind is rushing with more important things. "Is that why you brought the tasers?"
"They're water cannibals." Emmett stands gingerly and approaches the water. Kneeling down, he cleans the blood off his shoulder, revealing his scarless healing beneath the shredded shirt.
"Did you know they're made of water?"
"I had a hunch." Watching the water with anticipation, he backs away slowly before turning back to Edward. "Guns didn't stop them."
Edward shakes his head as his face twist in thought. He takes the magazine from his rifle and slides it in his cargo pocket before replacing it with a fresh one.
"Bullets don't," he says, thinking back to Bella's sudden shot from the darkness. "I think the sniper surprised them. Once that one was on you, it wasn't going be distracted. He only wanted to kill you."
"And now they know we're here."
"Yep." Edward sighs. In the distant woods, he hears Jacob loud roar. Scanning around and above them, he can no longer see the cooling tower behind the buildings.
"Bella," he says, shielding his eyes against the rain as he watches the night sky, "We're at D-22 and heading underground. Go help Jacob and escort him here." Against the charcoal clouds, he makes out her winged shape take flight towards the woods.
"I really don't think Jacob will need back-up," Emmett says, hanging his rifle across his body as he withdraws his sword and taser.
"Probably not," Edward replies through heavy breaths, "I would rather just get him here now."
"Sir," Emmett says, incredulously. His jacket hangs from his shoulder in crimson-strained shreds. "He's a goddamn lion."