"Proceed with extreme caution, Megan," he warned her. "I don't like the feel of this."
Neither did she.
She stepped out of the vehicle, cocking her head at the silence of the gully. It was as though all life had deserted the area. Normally it would be filled with the whisper of birds' wings, small wildlife and insects fighting for food and survival. This gully was one of the few areas that managed to retain moisture within the small caverns the water had carved from it. There should be life here.
There was only death.
A peculiar, horrifying stench filled the air as well. The smell of death wrapped around her, thick and filled with menace in the late afternoon stillness. She felt the tension thicken, and it wasn't just her own.
"Lance, it stinks here." She heard her own voice tremble as she stared at the SUV gleaming beneath the hot sun.
Her chest tightened as she glimpsed the presence of two bodies through the heavily tinted, rnostly shattered glass.
"Goddamn, Megan. Get the hell out of there." Lance hissed, his voice heavy with dread.
Chills raced over her scalp, her shoulders, tightening her muscles as she pushed back the sensations and fought to get a better grip on what was there. Releasing the light field Wounder from the holster at her hip, she held it confidently, her senses rioting and sending adrenaline coursing through her as she walked to the vehicle.
Damn, she wished she had a real weapon, rather than the Wounder used for lighter duty such as patrol. It only slowed down a criminal rather than incapacitating him. Its greatest plus was its extended range. One of its drawbacks was the inability to predict its effect in any given situation.
"The vehicle is riddled with bullet holes. We have at least two dead," she spoke into the microphone, relaying the information she found to the control center.
The windows of the SUV were punctured with bullets. The tires had been ripped apart by them; the cliffs rising from the gully were scoured with
ammunition damage. The smell of death surrounded the area, the heat and carnage inside the vehicle twisted her gut as she surveyed the scene.
"Definitely two dead," she reported as she stepped back. "God, Lance, their mothers couldn't identify them." The bullets had tom through their upper bodies, ripping away much of their facial features.
"Megan, get back to the Raider now!" Lance ordered, his voice edged with steel.
She could feel the hairs along her nape standing on end as her spine began to tingle. Turning slowly, her gaze narrowed on the high gully walls as adrenaline rushed through her system and her senses began to riot. Someone was watching her.
"Infrared showed no signs of life_" she mused out loud. Somehow, something had interfered with the system's readings, because she knew someone, something, was out there.
She could feel the eyes watching her, malevolence following her.
Her finger tightened on the trigger of her weapon as she felt the danger intensify. Where? Where was it coming from? She could feel it watching her, tracking every move she made, yet the sensors in the vehicle showed no signs of life.
"I'm heading back," she agreed. "Something's messed up on the Raider, Lance. Check it out. It showed no life signs_"
Lance was cursing, screaming at Lenny to find the copters, to get his unit ready to roll. Backup. Yeah, she needed backup now.
Megan could feel the eyes trained on her. Even worse, she could feel the weapons.
She backed up, her eyes scanning the gully as her heart raced in her chest. Her mouth felt dry, her body tense with the need to turn and run.
She was halfway to the Range Raider when she felt the first shots being taken. She could actually feel the malicious energy pouring over her a second before she threw herself across the gully toward one of the small caverns that had been cut into the wall.
Violence exploded through the air. Bullets tore into the sandy ground, moving like lightning across the gully and taking chunks from the rock wall of the entrance of the cavern she had thrown herself into.
"Megan. Megan, report." Lance was yelling in her ear as she plastered herself against the dubious safety of a small indentation the water had cut into the side of the wall, keeping her body well away from the entrance.
"At least two," she snapped into the mic, keeping her eyes trained on the entrance and the sliver of outside she could see from her position. "How faraway did you say the copters werc?"
"I said they were too f**king far away." Lance snarled furiously.
"Dammit, Megan, we're too far away from you."
Yeah. She remembered now. Damn. That sucked.
Holding her weapon ready, she moved carefully to peer around the protection of the groove in the wall to get a sense of the movement outside the cavern. She ducked back just in time to save her head as the bullets ripped around her once again.
"Give me an idea of what's going on. We're heading out there but we're at least an hour away."
She could hear the force of his breath behind his words, proof that he was running from the control center and heading to his vehicle.
An hour.
Boy, she was so screwed.
"I'm holed up in a small cavern. I have at least one assailant in clear view of the entrance keeping me hemmed in. I can't tell what's going on outside though." She swallowed tightly. "Lance, I'm not going to make it an hour."
Chills raced over her flesh, a premonition of increasing danger as the air thickened around her, growing heavier, hotter. Time seemed to stand still, to creep by at a turtle's pace. So much could happen in an hour.