Chapter 5
We were slow to get started the next morning, and I sat for a while, staring out an oval window at the world as I sipped strong coffee.
I needed all the help I could get this morning.
Nightmares had plagued me throughout the night, visions of all my researchers getting killed by an unending horde of the animals.
I didn’t do well with bloodshed, it seemed.
I’d thankfully never had to find that out until now.
I wasn’t the only one who lacked energy today. Most of the researchers were quiet and somber as they ate or sipped coffee. I hoped this wouldn’t mark what the rest of our time here would be like.
We went back to work. I finished with the area I’d been documenting and moved over to a towering shrine, the one with silver gossamer thread and those beautiful flowers decorating it.
I gazed at the inscription and markings and touched a finger to one.
I wasn’t an expert, but this one was different.
I went to the stone I’d been studying and then came back.
It did look different. Shouldn’t it be more weathered?
Where the lines of the other one had softened from weathering and displayed small erosion marks, this one was crisp and unblemished.
Concern made me glance around until I found the nearest officer and strode over to him. He didn’t look pleased to see me. I didn’t care. “You’re absolutely certain that this place is abandoned, right?”
His brows furrowed. “We wouldn’t have brought you here with so few guards if we thought they were nearby.” He turned away from me.
That didn’t answer my question, and it made me even more nervous. I looked around, checking on my team. Tatiana was a few yards from me, recording detailed words etched in stone in a beautiful, looping script.
The two PhD assistants were skirting around the edge of the shrines, pointing and talking to each other, gesturing broadly. Doctors Rasmussen, Wu, and Froehle were scattered around the ruins. What I hoped were only ruins. The Consortium wouldn’t have sent us here unless they really knew, right?
Where was Jaron? I traveled in the direction I’d last seen him, deeper into the canyon.
I found Jaron unsurprisingly doing something that made me shake my head.
“Why are you standing on that stone?” How he’d climbed all the way up there I didn’t know.
“Do you see something coming down the canyon?” It must have been a rhetorical question, because he continued.
“I saw them way off and thought they were birds, but they keep getting closer and bigger. Does the Consortium really not have a list of different species of animals we should be worried about?”
My heart rate spiked and I grabbed my pack, slinging it around so I could access it. “They didn’t say anything about it, but a conversation I just had with one of the officers makes me nervous. Look through these binos and tell me what you see.” I stretched and handed him the binoculars.
He peered through them and adjusted them. And then adjusted them again. I bounced on my toes anxiously.
“Fuck.”
That one word from Jaron made me go numb. He jumped down, landing in a crouch. His eyes were as frightened as I’d ever seen them. My brother didn’t get scared. “We need to get out of here.”
I didn’t argue, and we rushed back toward the group.
“What did you see?” I finally gasped out, not sure I wanted to know.
“The Consortium lied.” He glanced over at me as we ran. “There are four vorpyr headed this way.”
Fuck indeed.
We burst into view of the others and I wasted no time. “Get back to the ship!”
When no one moved, staring at us like we were crazy as we ran toward them, Jaron barked, “move! Multiple vorpyr headed this way.”
That got people moving. Chaos ensued as everyone either grabbed their packs and ran toward the ship, or just bolted in terror, leaving their equipment.
The officers had their guns up, but they were also retreating back toward the ship. Not comforting.
“Jacqueline!” Jaron yelled when I darted to the side to pick up my other bag and stuff some of my items inside. He grabbed my arm. “We don’t have time for this.”
I was loath to leave the equipment and research, but when he pulled me away, I didn’t fight him.
We raced along the canyon, several feet behind the rest of the group.
“How long do you estimate until they get here?” I gasped out.
“They were moving quickly but are still a few miles away. We should be able to check all systems and get off the ground before they arrive.” Jaron had always been better at math than me, so I trusted he knew what he was talking about.
We reached the ship and officers, two on each side of the ramp, waved us on. “Move, move, move!” one barked.
Jaron and I raced up the ramp, hot on the heels of the others. Once inside I stumbled to the side and bent my knees, placing my hands on them as I gasped for air. After a few breaths I forced myself to straighten and did a quick inspection of everyone.
The older researchers looked ragged and pale, but no worse for wear. The assistants had gotten their bags and were placing them on the floor. Along with Dr. Wu they were the only ones who’d collected their things.
I frowned and looked around the group again even as the final military officer raced up the ramp and called for the pilots to raise it and get us off this damn planet.
“Wait!” I yelled. All eyes turned toward me. “Where’s Tatiana?”
One of the officers cursed.
“We have to go,” the one taking charge barked. “Close the ramp.”
“Don’t you dare!” I pushed past him.
He snagged my arm, but I had taken some practical self-defense courses and it’s easy to roll your arm out of someone’s grip. The thumb is the weak link. When his grip broke, I raced back down the ramp.
“Jacqueline!” Jaron yelled.
I ignored him. “Tatiana!” I called. I could see her curly black hair in the distance. She was still at the shrines.
I raced toward her and waved my arms wildly to get her attention. “Tatiana!”
She spun in a circle, a confused expression pinching her face, then caught sight of me.
I was wheezing worse than the first run when I got to her. “No time. Get to the ship!”
“What—” she started to run with me but we both froze at a horrible sound, like nails on a chalkboard or… claws scraping along stone.
I glanced around furtively, and my heart nearly shattered in my chest when I saw Jaron, frozen a few feet away. He shouldn’t have followed!
I didn’t see them yet, but I didn’t need to be a math genius to know that we wouldn’t make it back to the ship.
“Hide.” I whispered, gesturing at the shrine right behind us.
My gaze automatically sought out Jaron, but he must have had the same thought because he was creeping closer to a boulder the size of a house with a long overhang that a person could conceivably crawl under.
He got on his belly and slithered under.
I turned and pushed a frozen Tatiana into the arched doorway of the shrine.
We couldn’t get inside, there was a stone door that I had no idea how to open, but the arch was large enough and on the correct side of the canyon compared to the sun that there were shadows that would hide us.
My blood rushed loudly in my ears even as I struggled to quiet my breathing.
It only made it worse. Tatiana seemed to have the same problem, and she clapped a hand over her mouth, squeezing her eyes shut.
We were on opposite sides, each behind a pillar, otherwise I would reach over and put a hand on her shoulder.
A soft swish sounded and I shifted in the shadows just enough so that I could see out. My breath caught.
I’d heard about them. I’d even seen renditions of them, grotesque and terrifying as the Consortium explained what they were fighting against to the people. But the being before me was not grotesque, he was…beautiful.
His face was human enough, but two horns rose from his head, curling back ever so slightly.
His eyes were a brilliant emerald green, a shade I’d never seen before, and his body was pure muscle.
I could see that even under the supple, leather-like clothing that hugged his big frame.
But what struck me the most were the stunning black wings that curved out from his back.
They looked thin, but I could tell they were powerful.
They had to be to lift him. And the wings had thin lines of gold along what would be membranes on a bat’s wings. Breathtaking.
If I hadn’t been stricken with terror, I might consider it unfortunate that I couldn’t go speak with him. The first alien I’d ever seen.
Movement across from me caught my attention and I squinted into the gloom. Tatiana was making rapid hand motions. It took me a moment to realize that she was using Earth’s universal sign language.
The military will rescue us. I couldn’t tell if it was a statement or a question, but I assumed they would find a way to get us out of this scenario.
After all, it was their either lack of knowledge or blatant disregard that brought this situation about in the first place.
I nodded once, in case it was a question. She seemed relieved.
When I glanced back out, the vorpyr male was gone. Good. Tatiana seemed to notice as well and lifted her hands again. Should we run?
Before I could answer a cry made my blood ice over.
Jaron. Had they found Jaron? Renewed fear, more fear than I’d ever known, held me in its merciless grasp.
Before I could even think I was signing to Tatiana stay hidden.
Her eyes widened. She shook her head, but by the time she was reaching for me, I’d already started out of the shrine.