Chapter 3

Chapter Three

"Qatar? What's so significant about that base?" John asked the four brothers as they communicated silently amongst themselves, they all having silent conversations with each other.

He would later refuse that he took a slight step back when all four brothers' turned their intimidating gazes onto him.

"Nothing you need concern yourself about, Doctor Watson. I'm afraid my brothers and I are needed elsewhere. Anthea will take you back to Baker Street. Ramses and Sherlock should be home in a week or so." Sherrinford said before climbing into the driver seat of the new black car that had pulled up behind the one they had emerged from. Mycroft didn't do anything other than nod his goodbye before getting into the passenger seat with Ramses joining his brothers and slipping in behind Mycroft.

Sherlock turned to John, immediately he could tell that John was now very concerned about him. "Don't worry, we'll be back soon. I'll stay in touch."

Sherlock joined his brothers and slipped in behind Sherrinford before they were on their way to their parents' home which would take several hours. As they drove, none of the four brothers could resist thinking back about their sister, their incredible minds dragging up every memory, every conversation, letter, phone call, that they have had with her. It hadn't hit them all yet that their baby sister was truly gone. But it would.

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It was daylight when they arrived at their large childhood manor and they saw their parents step outside, their father's arm wrapped securely around his wife's shoulders as she wiped at her face with a damp handkerchief.

"Oh, my boys!" She cried as the brothers joined their parents. Ramses, the more emotionally stable son, immediately drew their mother into his arms, saving his emotionally stunted brothers – to their relief. They loved their mother, they did. They just didn't handle emotions very well. "Y-You didn't h-have to co-come all the wa-way out here."

"Of course we did, Mother. We loved her too and she would have wanted all of us to be together during this time." Sherrinford said gently suffering silently when she jumped into his arms when he came up beside her and Ramses.

"Come, Mother, let's head inside. Its chilly out here." Mycroft said softly. Sherrinford led her into the house with the brothers and father following. They unfortunately had a funeral to plan.

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"It's so hot." Donnelly whined as they trudged through the desert. The tank that they had used had finally ran out of gas a mile back and they had been walking in the direction of a cell tower that they had seen poking over sand dunes back there.

"No, it's f*cking freezing, Don." Ruby sneered. She hated it when people stated the bloody obvious. Some of the soldiers jumped slightly as they might have forgotten that she was there as she had been silent since the night before.

Lennox rolled his eyes as he panted as they once again began going up a sand dune. "Ruby…"

"Sorry." She grumbled. At least the MREs and snacks that she had packed in her bag came in handy. She kind of wished that she had grabbed some bottled water, that would have been needed a lot more than the food. But she couldn't plan for everything.

Couple hours later they finally reached the cell tower and saw to their great joy, a well full of water.

"Oh thank god," Law gasped out as he and Epps reached it first and poured water over their heads to cool themselves down. The others followed, the water cooling them down for a second from the harsh sun.

"Hindz, Ortiz, get the signal connected. We need to get that to the Pentagon before that thing reaches us." Lennox ordered.

"Ruby, are you really sure though that it is following us?" Donnelly asked.

Ruby rolled her eyes. "Of course I'm sure. That robot went straight for the mainframe during its destruction and I'm going to guess someone in the base realized that and cut the lines to make sure they didn't get what they wanted. This robot, and I'm sure there are most likely more of them, want information that the government has and wants their existence to be kept a secret so that when they attack – and they will – no one will be prepared for them. Most likely, they will want to annihilate mankind like all of those end of the world movies you guys enjoy watching."

"Yes. That is probably true so we need to hurry up, get a connection with the Pentagon and let them know what's coming before we are killed as well."

Don, Fig, Ruby, and Epps faced outwards as the others worked on trying to connect to the phone tower. All of a sudden, the tower fell down.

"WHOA!" the ones facing it shouted. Don turned around when the sand settled.

"What the heck was that?" he asked but he was ignored. They were all looking around when Epps heard something metal like and looked over to see a spear-like weapon aimed at Lennox's back.

"WHOA!" he yelled and began firing at the thing aimed at one of his best friends. That caused everyone to turn around and see what was happening and to begin firing as well. When the dust settled, no one knew where to look for whatever was attacking them. Then, all of a sudden, Don was stabbed and killed instantly before being flung in the air. The soldiers started to yell and run towards where Mahfouz's village was.

"GO!" Lennox shouted as he saw his already exhausted soldiers start to slightly lag even though he knew they weren't lagging on purpose. The villagers saw them coming and saw what was chasing them and started firing their own weapons at the metal scorpion.

"Papa!" Mahfouz shouted as he ran towards his home where his father was just coming out. Lennox followed him.

"Do you have a telephone?" the father looked at Lennox confused and frightened as the soldiers and villagers fired at the scorpion. "Ah, telephone? Phone?"

"Oh, telephone! Yes, yes!" the father darted inside his home and grabbed the satellite phone and handed it to Lennox who quickly dialed the number for the Pentagon and hurried back to his soldiers.

Unfortunately, it didn't go straight through, he got stuck talking to an operator that wouldn't push his call through unless he put a credit card number in for the international call.

"Epps, I need a credit card!"

"Back pocket!" Epps said over the gunfire before returning his attention to the fire fight.

"You've got ten back pockets!"

"Left cheek! Left cheek! Left cheek!"

Lennox grabbed it and returned his attention back to the phone and read the credit card information to the operator.

"Sir, would you like to hear about our premium packages?"

"No, I don't want a premium package! Connect my call now!" Lennox then tossed the phone to Epps. "Epps, Pentagon!"

Epps began to talk to the Pentagon and telling them where to direct the jets that were coming to aid them. "Man, if you've seen this shit… hurry and get some backup out here! Bring the rain! Target north of orange smoke!"

The jets came and began to shoot at the metal scorpion, actually hurting it somewhat and after causing it to screech in pain, it retreated injured, the very tip of the tail being left behind as it disappeared while the dust was settling.

Ruby, after finally getting the loud ringing out of her head from the sudden silence, turned at the familiar cries of Fig and raced over to him, meeting up with Lennox as they both tried to treat him as best as they could until help would arrive.

Ruby couldn't help but feel slightly relieved, however. They would be going home. She couldn't wait to see her parents and brothers.