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.
