Attack from the Shadows.
Lieutenant Delgado of the U.S Marines hated his job and his posting.
Sure, being a marine was cool enough, but when he had joined to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather, being posted to a godforsaken - literally godforsaken - part of the desert, miles from proper civilisation, and forced to be part of a unit dedicated to cleaning up the mess made by a shady government research organisation dealing with fringe research, it wasn't quite what he'd had in mind.
Especially as a lot of his work detailed cleaning up the mess made by said research organisation; when he had been briefed on what those idiot scientists had done, using pregnant women in a town that had actually been built just for this experiment - Delgado…genuinely and truly didn't understand how the government was able to do that, never mind go so far… - he had not believed a word of it.
But it wasn't until much later, when he went out on patrol that the mutated and feral cannibal freaks that lived out here made too much noise for them to be allowed or tolerated, only then did Delgado learn to believe it, and many of the men who worked out here had quickly learnt to believe every single thing they heard.
Like him, they too hated this job, and as their truck travelled down the road, Delgado prepared his weapons. He didn't understand why the U.S government tolerated these mutants; his C.O had told him many times the government were of the opinion the mutants could still be useful, but then again if that were the case, they would have been rounded up long ago.
But then Delgado had seen the expression in his C.O's eyes, and he saw that he didn't believe it either.
Tonight was going to be even worse; their planes had spotted a fire right next to old Fred's gas station, and a pizza van of all things had been seen travelling down the wrong road. The marines had been busy lately trying to find a group of teenagers, who'd vanished without a trace. Their disappearance was already causing a lot of noise, the last thing they needed was more.
-8-
El had only just jumped into the van when screams and cries of surprise and horror stopped her from going into a trance to try to find the missing girls. She quickly jumped out, only to see Argyle and Jonathan trying to fight off two enormous….shapes, but without any weapons and considering their questionable health they were having it hard.
Without missing a beat, El shrieked, and she threw the two forms away, snapping their necks as she did.
El despised violence and killing, she was a naturally peaceful person at heart, who just wanted to live in a safe world, but when she was forced to, she was willing to lash out.
El rushed to the two boys and helped them up while Mike and Will hurried over to where they were. "Are you two okay?" She asked.
"More or less, El," Jonathan wheezed as she helped him up.
"What happened?"
"They came out of nowhere; we were just about to come into the van with you, and keep you safe," Jonathan smiled when El sent him that heartwarming grin of hers, "and to just get out of the open. Next thing I know, we're fighting for our lives. And losing, the strength of these things…" Jonathan was sure his entire body was in agony, and he was sure he had massive bruises everywhere now. A quick check on Argyle told him that his friend had been knocked out, a part of him was relieved with that little development.
"What did you do with them?"
"I threw them off, and I snapped their necks and spines," El admitted. "They're just too dangerous. I made a mistake with One, Jonathan; I'm not going to make the same thing again."
"El, I know you're not gonna like this, but do you think we can leave now?" Jonathan asked hesitantly. He didn't want them to stay here any longer, and that El wanted to find those kids.
"I'm tempted to, believe me, but I want to see if I can find those other kids," El looked to Mike and Will solemnly. "Lets get back inside the van," she suggested, "if I find them, I can bring them out, and then we can go."
She'd had just about enough of this place.
As El was helping Jonathan and the unconscious Argyle into the pizza van, with Mike's help, Will spotted something out of the corner of his eye.
Just as he was turning his head, he let out a warning cry but a little too late. "LOOK OUT!"
And he was smashed to the ground by an arm that was strong enough to literally knock down a rhino, and he was knocked senseless and stars exploded in his vision. He thought he heard what sounded like El, screaming in horror, but he couldn't be sure as he fell unconscious.
-8-
"-ill? Will, are you okay?" Will woke up slowly, flinching in agony from the pain in his head, and he looked up, and saw Jonathan and Mike looking down at him, and Argyle was holding a bottle of water in his hands. But he also flinched from the glare of the sun.
"W-What happened?" He asked.
"Those cannibals attacked, El was snatched," Jonathan told him hurriedly.
"What?" Will snapped.
Mike flinched, rubbing a nasty cut/bruise on his forehead. "It's true, Will. Old Fred's dead, too. He was standing there, jabbering and then one of them snapped his neck."
Will wasn't sorry about that, but it was El he was worried about. Not only was she his sister, but she was a friend as well. "How did they get to her without her using her powers?"
"Oh, she used them," Jonathan helped him stand up, and he led Will to where there were three twisted, hideous corpses; up close and in the light of the sun, he could see these people clearly. It was like they had been plucked out of the Stone Age, with their long, unruly hair, and misshapen features, they looked like cavemen.
But there were differences.
A few of them acted like they had been formed in the womb, and then it was like their own genes had just gone wrong; an arm would be larger than another, or half of their face would be part blobby while leaving the other perfectly formed. Well, that was an oxymoron.
Will could tell these people had been killed by El, they'd been ripped to pieces, and he flinched at the sight of their torn-apart corpses. He shook his head, wondering just how long El had had before she was snatched to do something like this.
But there was one question on his mind.
"How are we going to get her back?"