Anna grabbed the goggles from her dresser upstairs and leaped from her bedroom window, dipping in a slight arc toward the yard below before flying up and out across the barnyard. She caught sight of several farm staff walking between buildings and quickly powered up her cloaking mode as she silently cleared the final barn. The valley opened up before her as she ascended into the sky. At this height, she knew she may lose several seconds in pursuit, but she’d gain perspective and buy herself some time to figure out what to do next.
She flew past Tyson Lake and its surrounding woods. She passed the soybean fields that looked like a brilliant green carpet in the fading evening light.
“How far, SID?” Anna asked over her iCom.
<Factoring in your speed and the creature’s current location, you should have a visual any second.>
Anna broke the view in front of her into four quadrants, scanning her eyes back and forth across each quadrant for any sign of movement. From the corner of her eye, she saw two tiny trucks racing down one of the backroads. Even at this height, she could tell the trucks were moving fast. Dust clouds like Morse code followed the second truck as it swerved on and off the road. Something in the speed and erratic movement made her pause. She zoomed in on the truck in front.
“Oh no,” Anna said out loud.
Tyler was driving, his body hunched over the steering wheel, his eyes wild. The passenger in the front and the small one in the back both held rifles. The passenger in the second truck was leaning out and pointing his rifle into the wheat field. Two trucks. Three guns.
Anna’s gaze followed the direction of the rifle barrel. On the far edge of the field, where the wheat abutted the forest’s edge, the Shadow was running, its body bobbing above and below the wheat stalks like a jet-black fish swimming along the surface of the water.
“Mara! I’m going to need your help,” Anna called over her iCom. “Tyler is here and has the creature in his sights. They look like they’re trying to cut it off.”
A moment’s pause and then SID answered.
<Mara can’t reply. She texted me to tell you to hold on until she gets there. Do not engage under any circumstances.>
Tyler made it to the edge of the wheat field and took a hard right onto a dirt service road. The second truck followed just behind. Anna was right. Tyler was trying to cut the creature off. The Shadow was fast, but not as fast as the truck barreling in its direction. In less than fifteen seconds, the creature would be reaching the end of the field, and Tyler would be waiting. Anna primed her vortex cannon.
“I’ll be careful,” Anna said into the iCom.
<Do not engage!>
Anna flattened her body and dove like a falcon toward the pickup trucks now skidding to a stop. She calculated the distance and angle of her dive. Not enough time.
Tyler had already opened his door before the truck had finished its slide, and he leaned out just like he had practiced a thousand times before. He drew his rifle out and mounted it on top of the roof in one fluid move. He closed one eye and placed his finger on the trigger. The creature was now in his view and moving straight in his direction.
Pop!
Anna thought she heard a firecracker go off. Sharp and loud.
Pop . . . pop!
She realized it was the percussive sound of rifle fire. The first two shots veered right. On the third shot, though, the Shadow dipped its shoulder to the left, and Anna wasn’t sure if it had dodged the bullet or been struck.
She had one chance. Now twenty feet above the pickup truck, Anna fired her vortex cannon in Tyler’s direction. There was a brief delay, then the ball of compressed gas expanded and hit Tyler like a giant hand slapping his back. His chest slammed hard against the truck as his rifle flew from his grasp to bounce off the hood and onto the ground.
Anna floated, invisible to all beneath her.
Looking down through the windshield of the pickup truck, Anna saw Hanson freeze. He looked disoriented and unsteady. His eyes were shut tight as if he were trying to wish the whole thing away. Then the pop of rifle fire from Billy’s truck seemed to force Hanson out of his daze. He opened his eyes just in time to see the creature leap effortlessly from the edge of the field to the top of the truck.
Thwack!
The roof of the truck suddenly dented in with a deep thud. Hanson leaned his body out the side window and looked up to the roof. Just inches away, the creature knelt in a crouch, its arms and legs folded at odd angles. Its skin was an unnatural absence of color. Scales flared out around the creature’s head as it turned to face its closest threat.
“Shoot it, Owen! Shoot it!” Tyler shouted. He had recovered enough to pull himself up to his knees by the side of the truck.
Owen was on his knees in the back of the truck. He lifted the barrel of his rifle, then froze.
The creature cocked its head and leaned forward. Its scales began to vibrate, its mouth opened wide, and a piercing, unnatural wail echoed out across the countryside. Owen looked into the creature’s face—a black hole in the sky—and screamed. He dropped his rifle and leaped from the back of the truck to hit the ground running in a full sprint. His hat flew off as he passed Billy’s truck, but he didn’t look back. He wouldn’t look back until he reached the paved road minutes later.
The Shadow’s gaze followed the pale, noisy creature as it ran away—sensing its fear and panic—then quickly scanned the area, its head turning almost full-circle. The signal to home was loud. The path was clear. It leaped from the truck in a high arc, passing over Tyler to silently land on the edge of the soybean field. Its arms and legs unfolded as it galloped along a small dirt path that separated the soybean field from the woods. Dust kicked up where its feet slapped the ground.
“I swear to God, none of you could shoot the side of a barn,” Tyler shouted as he grabbed his rifle and jumped back into the cab of his truck.
“I didn’t see you do any better, sure-shot,” Billy lobbed back.
“Come on. Let’s go!” Tyler said as he pounded the roof of his truck. “Go! Go! It’s getting away!”
Tyler slammed his truck in reverse and took out a section of fence along the wheat field, wooden posts splintering with a loud crack, and then popped the truck into gear. He sped forward, flying over a small ditch and then out into the soybean field. His truck bounced up and down over the rows of dirt and vegetation. Billy’s truck followed close behind.
From above, Anna could see Hanson clutch the truck’s grab handle with one hand and his rifle with the other. His knuckles were white. His eyes blank.
Pop! Thwack!
Another rifle shot rang out, this time from the passenger in Billy’s truck. He missed far right, really far right, as Anna could hear the bullet crack against a tree in the woods. She feared he was more likely to shoot someone in Tyler’s truck than the creature.
Anna leaned forward and raced to catch up. Her body skimmed just feet above the plants, so close she could smell the freshly dug-up soil and the sharp chemical smell of pesticide residue. She primed her vortex cannon as she caught up to the side of Billy’s truck and glanced over. He was just feet away, eye level, but she was afraid to fire while he was driving at this speed.
She frantically looked for other ways to slow the truck down—like taking the air out of the tires or dropping a log across their path—and realized she had no idea what she was doing. She sped forward and flew just above the hood, keeping pace with the speeding truck as she turned her body to face the front window. Anna flew straight backward as she looked directly into the cab. Billy was enjoying the hunt. His head was lowered, his eyes were narrow, and he grinned. At that moment, Anna wanted nothing more than to wipe that smile off his face—then she noticed the hood of the truck rattle just beneath her. The latch had come loose. Not completely, but enough to bounce up and down by less than an inch. The hood. That’s it.
Anna’s fingers were just able to squeeze under the hood. She searched for the release latch. She knew if Billy were to stop or suddenly turn, her fingers would be ripped off, but she continued to search along the edge until she felt a small hinge. The release. She strained to squeeze the hinge. Then click.
She had enough time to see Billy’s eyes widen—his face registering what was happening before his brain could process what was going on—as the hood caught the wind and flew back against the windshield like a spring-loaded trap. Glass shattered but didn’t break. Metal twisted and snapped. Billy slammed on his brakes and the truck fishtailed to the right and shuddered to a stop, the hood still sticking straight up like a sail. As Anna flew away, she looked back long enough to see Billy step out of his truck, throw his hat against the ground, and kick the side of the truck. One down. Without losing speed, she rolled her body forward and took off in pursuit of Tyler’s truck.
The tires bounced off the deep, furrowed rows of soybean like a piston. The loose soil and uneven terrain slowed the truck down, but not enough. Tyler was still gaining on the creature.
Anna leaned to her right and accelerated up to the passenger side, bugs stinging her face like needle pricks. She flew at eye level with Hanson, avoiding the gun barrel pointed out the window. She looked forward and saw the creature was no more than twenty feet ahead.
“Shoot it, Hanson!” Tyler shouted.
Hanson didn’t respond. He didn’t move. Tyler reached over and slugged his friend’s shoulder to get his attention. Hanson looked over slowly and loosened his grip on the rifle.
“I don’t want to do this anymore,” Hanson said.
This was her chance. Anna grabbed the rifle barrel and pulled hard. She could feel Hanson scramble to hold on as she yanked the rifle from his hands, but she had moved too quickly for him to respond. He was fighting ghosts. She flung the rifle as far as she could into the thorn-rimmed brambles that lined the foot of the woods. Hanson reached his arms out the window in desperation, his fingers flailing only inches from Anna’s face, then he slumped back in his seat.
“What the hell, Hanson?!” Tyler shouted as he looked over in exasperation.
“Let me out,” Hanson pleaded.
“You’re not going anywhere.” Tyler looked straight ahead. “Not until I kill this thing.”
Tyler leaned forward and pushed the gas pedal to the floor. Metal tools rattled on the floorboard, and the rusted springs in the bench seat squeaked. The one remaining rifle bounced on Tyler’s lap as Hanson looked over in horror. He was sure it was going to go off and spray his insides against the side of the cab. But Tyler didn’t seem to notice or care. All his attention was on the black figure in front of him. The truck barreled forward, the right front tire now only feet from the creature’s extended legs.
The remaining evening light was fading fast, and Anna suddenly had a hard time differentiating between the black outline of the creature and the dark crisscross of brambles and tree branches along the edge of the woods.
The creature skirted the headlights anytime the truck came close, like the cone of light was a physical barrier.
Tyler must have noticed this too, and he flicked on the 420-watt floodlights that sat on top of the truck, bright enough to light up a baseball field or stun a deer. But the light mounts had been twisted when the creature planted a six-inch dent in the roof, and they now shone at haphazard angles. The floodlight on the right shot almost straight up, like a beacon, while the light mounted on the left pointed directly at the far side of the truck and hit the Shadow straight on.
The blinding light burned past the creature’s protective lens. The left side of its body seized up. The creature appeared disoriented, and its limbs no longer worked in sync. It stumbled and fell forward into the brambles, its arms and legs wrapping around its body in a protective shell as it rolled to a stop.
Tyler slammed on the brakes and spun the steering wheel sharply to the right, making the truck fishtail out of control over rough mounds of dirt. Soybean plants flew in giant clumps as the truck tilted to the left, teetering on the edge of falling over. The truck seemed to float for a moment, its two right tires spinning in the air. Then the right side of the truck slammed back down with a heavy thud.
Hanson’s head whipped forward and smashed into the roll bar. His body slumped in the seat.
Anna had just enough time to nudge her trajectory upward as the truck veered left. She used her hands to vault safely off the top of the truck as she flew past, but she bounced off at an odd angle and tumbled out of control in midair.
Tyler sat silent in the truck, his hands still on the wheel. His rifle was now at his feet and pointed up toward the roof. He looked over at Hanson, who was passed out in the seat next to him. A trail of blood ran down the side of his head and neck to stain his yellow shirt, but he was breathing. Tyler grabbed his rifle and looked out the front window. The left floodlight still enveloped the creature, now hunched over in a compact ball that reminded him of the roly-poly bugs he used to torture as a kid.
He stepped out of the truck and moved cautiously toward the creature, his rifle butted up against his shoulder, and pointed straight ahead. Tyler closed one eye and sighted the barrel dead center in the middle of the creature’s back. He placed his finger on the trigger, then paused. All these weeks and he finally had his chance. It was his shot.
“Anna, can you hear me?”
Anna had recovered from her spin twenty feet away from the truck, disoriented and unsure if she had imagined Mara’s voice on her iCom. She shook her head and looked up. Tyler was walking slowly toward the creature, his rifle held up to his shoulder, ready to fire. She primed her vortex cannon, then realized the blast may stop Tyler but could also cause him to press the trigger. She could try and wrest the rifle away like she did with Hanson. But that still might not stop Tyler from firing. There were no good choices.
“I’m sorry, Mara,” Anna said over her iCom.
She flew forward and landed in front of the creature in a crouch, covering its back with her body and deactivating her cloaking mode. She held her arms out in a protective posture as the creature stirred behind her.
“No, Tyler. Please,” Anna said.