At that moment a jingle attracts their attention; the three turn around in unison aiming their frightened looks at the elevator down the corridor. After two long seconds, a beep signals its arrival to their floor, while the red light on the side turns green.
The three are petrified by fear, while the sliding doors start to move, slipping sideways.
ALGERIAN DESERT
The Humvee carrying Seagull’s team approaches with studied slowness, stopping at twenty meters from the white jeep. The soldiers watch the scene, cautious and almost without breathing. No noise interferes with the slight blow of the hot Saharan wind.
There is no trace of the enemy, their car seems abandoned.
“You stay here, it may be a trap. I’m going to check. Will, cover me.”
With that, Seagull steps down from the military vehicle, walking slowly toward the jeep. The car is apparently intact. It’s been abandoned with the keys still in place. A quick inspection reveals the cause: in the back, next to the reservoir, a large metal fragment protrudes from the twisted metal.
Beyond the jeep a series of footprints proceeds towards the sand sea.
Seagull makes a gesture to the team, signaling them that they can approach.
Bailey yells something, leaning half out of the car and waving to point at a tiny spot behind him, just darker than the sand of the desert.
The three marines quickly head to their vehicle, while the voice of Jennings finally emerges from the forest of electrostatic discharges.
Ralph directs the vehicle, quickly closing the few hundred meters that separate his team from Seagull’s squad. With consummate skill, the man stops the vehicle about two meters away from the other.
The interrogative faces of Seagull and of the other men under his command turn into masks of disbelief and disgust while Jennings updates them about what happened to their mate.
“Shit, nothing about Ebola… Motherfucking Russians!”, Will Bailey spits in the sand.
“Have you reported to Major Macready?”, Seagull asks.
“He ordered to seek the creatures before they further spread the infection. We must destroy them and burn their bodies to ashes.”
“They won’t be far away, they proceeded on foot. They were left without fuel. A metal fragment pierced the fuel tank of their jeep. It must have happened when the other car exploded.”
“How long can a man walk in the Sahara in broad daylight?”, Stu wanders.
“Those aren’t men anymore”, Jennings echoes.
“Let’s follow them before the wind raises to hide their tracks”, Seagull’s conclusion. “We must find them and kill them before dark.”
At the thought of facing the creatures by night in the desert, an icy shiver runs on their backs. Once back to the vehicles, the soldiers proceed immediately on the trail left by the fugitives.
In the full light of the early afternoon, the footprints of the five men are clearly visible. The soldiers follow them along a straight path leading away from the direction of the rocky areas where there is the Berber village, initially believed to be their goal.
“It makes no sense”, says Jennings, while scanning the horizon to see any signs of their presence. “These tracks are heading to the middle of nowhere…”
After a good half hour, Seagull nods to Jeff, stopping the vehicle: he noticed something on the ground.
The tracks interrupt abruptly in an area where the sand has a darker color and the ground seems loose and uneven.
“What the hell could have happened here?”, Seagull whispers softly, then he adds in the intercom: “Ralph, with me, let’s go and check.”
The two men head with careful step toward the area where the sand appears stirred. The soldiers explore the scene when Ralph sees something. The man emits a snap with his lips, drawing Seagull’s attention, then he bends and he uses the barrel of his assault rifle to pull up something from the ground. Torn rags emerge from the sand. They have dark spots on which the dust has adhered.
“Goddammit…” Ralph bursts, while Seagull watches him pulling other clothing torn to shreds.
Jennings approaches in the meantime. The horrified man recognizing the clothes worn by the robbers and the prisoner.
“Those are their clothes”, it’s all I can say. With his mind’s eyes he keeps seeing the footage retrieved from the camera.
The three men turn to look over the area in which the sand appears loose and come close to its limit.
Like a river flowing from a lake, a clear track departs from the dark sandy spot, into the wilderness.
The track is flanked on both sides by starry prints.
Seagull and Ralph have a bewildered and worried look. It’s the low tone of Jennings that gives voice to their suspicions. “Those monsters… they have turned into something else. Something that can withstand the heat of this desert climate…”
“And it seems pretty damn big”, Seagull adds.
“Son of a bitch…”, Ralph’s conclusion, before spitting another lump of yellowish saliva and partly liquefied tobacco.
USA BASE CNT222
The elevator doors slide sideways; four soldiers in bio-hazard suits armed with assault rifles come out. At the sight of Moore, Vasquez and Ivanov, they arrange themselves on either side of the corridor. With synchronized gestures they kneel and point their guns forward. A fifth soldier follows close behind them, watching the three people that the soldiers hold at gunpoint. Their faces are terrified and surprised, as the soldiers order them to kneel, slowly and with their hands up.
An unknown voice reaches them, made slightly metallic and amplified by a loudspeaker. “Dr. Moore, Dr. Ivanov, I suggest you to cooperate. It’s for your own sake.”
The scientist doesn’t believe her ears.
This can’t be happening to me…
She takes instinctively a step toward the military group, which in reply make a quick gesture with their guns, loading the round in the chamber.
She freezes, uncertain and afraid. “We have a good test!”, her voice cracking with tension. “The three of us are human, we can prove it.”
No reply. The scientist launches a questioning look to Ivanov.
The Russian nods a negative sign with his head. “These men were alerted by someone, or something. We don’t know what information they have, or what they may have seen. They found us here…”, pointing with a gesture of his head to the traces of blood and broken glass window. “…they have good reasons to act this way. We are now a potential threat to their eyes.”
The man is the first to kneel with his hands in plain sight, shortly followed by the woman and Vasquez.
From their position they can’t see the shaded faces behind the visors of the soldiers.
Long moments go by in an oppressive silence, while the soldiers keep them at gunpoint, apparently awaiting orders. The trio of kneeling people can’t listen to any conversations over the intercom of the suits, all they can see is a team of armed soldiers. The black muzzles of their assault rifles pointing menacingly toward them.
Suddenly, without any notice, the lights go out of the base.
“Don’t move or we will open fire!” One of the soldiers shouts, while the lights placed under the barrels of their assault rifles turn on one by one.
Four cones of light projected by the torches dart in the darkness, illuminating the crouching trio on the floor.
Then everything happens quickly.
Another side window, to the right of the soldiers, explodes. A dark shadow falls on one of the men. In the heat of the moment, he lets out a shot, who slays an arm of Vasquez.