Intelligent anomalies

Mellisa and her small team saw three men parachuting down and stared at each other in confusion. Two of them were descending normally but one was frenzy. He had no control of his parachute and was straying away from the landing zone before the wind even pushed him further away and he landed where no one could even see him.

Panashe landed on the roof of a cottage and started wrestling his parachute trying to get it off him. He observed his surroundings before he stood up on the roof and took out a compass he had gotten as part of the gear given by the digital witches. Anomalies caused a disruption in the magnetic field so if the one he was hunting was closer by then the compass would go haywire. Panashe was distracted from the compass by a creaking sound and before he figured out what was causing the noise the asbestos he was standing on gave in and he fell into the cottage.

Panashe was amazed at how lucky he was when he landed on a sofa in the cottage. He examined the room and realised that whoever lived here was forced to leave. All of their possessions were left behind and seeing how hard the economy was for the past several years,Panashe started getting suspicious about these so called digital deserts. He left the cottage and headed into the main house and saw most of the possessions were still functional for families to leave them behind.

Panashe left the house after he was done with his inspection and headed for the landing area. Every step he took in the streets he imagined how it could have been if it weren't for the digital age and lies hiding behind why they all live crammed in the cities. He inspected several other homes and took and captured names of the families he could find until he reached the group.

"Ladies and gentleman, there he is. Our ticket to capturing this anomaly."

"What the hell is Munashe's lackie doing here?" Mellisa grabbed her weapon and pointed at Panashe.

"Chill out captain. He is here as part of the back up. Get your equipment and lead us to the anomaly." one of the reinforcements said and Mellisa shut down her staff.

Panashe remembered the first time he saw the digital witches riding their staffs and was shocked but this time he saw one up close. The staffs were powered by fusion cells that could produce a voltage of upto 500 volts.

"So that's how they are powered." Panashe was already interested in the staffs he could see but no one offered him a very close look.

No one trusted him because he had been listed as an enemy within the digital witches but he didn't know but understood their reluctance to accept him as aid. Mellisa was the one who led the party as they navigated through the deserted residential area. Allen walked with Mellisa up front and he couldn't believe his eyes.

"Hey Mellisa. It truly is Panashe." Allen whispered to Mellisa who just nodded.

Panashe felt like an outcast and walked behind everyone keeping his thoughts to himself. The duo who were leading the group felt familiar to him but he couldn't identify them at all. His mind wandered off as he followed a group of people whose intentions were very unclear to him.

'What if this is a scam to rob me and expose me.'

He stopped for minute and observed the six people in front of him. 'I can take them all on.' He assured himself before resuming the march until he felt a strangeness in the atmosphere. The first thing he grabbed was his compass and it was going haywire indicating the closeness of an anomaly.

As if their presence was detected they had a growl. It was coming from a three story building that used to be a local bank.

"Everyone switch to night vision and don't make a sound. You guys brought dischargers right?" Mellisa asked as she stopped the party from moving forward.

"Yes we have them."

"Then you are going in first. Electrocute it with three bombs then we will move in to immobilise it whilst it's stunned. "

The two men nodded and proceeded into the bank quietly and Panashe observed them moving forward. The whole squad followed several seconds later and waited for the two men to set off their dischargers. It didn't take long before they heard the static sound and the howling of the creature before they all moved in and shot the monsters legs with their staffs and the creature fell to its side. They activated the electric restraints and they surrounded the monster.

"That's it?" Panashe was shocked at how efficient this strategy was but the answer from Mellisa wasn't pleasing to his ears.

"It's because we managed to exhaust it. It was in here so that it could rest."

Panashe observed the monster and realised that it had six legs and several eyes like a spider. It's mouth produced an acrid stench that nearly made him vomit and he treated from it and went to the door. It's breathing was very subtle as its stomach rose and fell like a sine wave graph. Panashe wanted to ask what it was like when it was fully recovered but he spared the tired squad.

They were all relieved as the creature remained down and they called the airship down. Panashe was disappointed but happy that he didn't get to fight the monster he saw in front him. When he heard the sound of rotors he sighed and headed outside the building but the sound of breaking glass brought him back to reality.

The anomaly was back on its feet and it roared before going into a frenzy and attacked everyone. Panashe saw the creature rushing out of the building and scaling a wall as it went for the airship.

"No you don't!"

He cried out as he launched both his mech limbs towards the creatures hind legs and disrupted its anticipated leap of faith towards the airship. The monster came crushing down in a thunderous manner and the airship ascended to freedom.

"Nice one kid." one of the squad members called out as he witnessed Panashe in action.

Panashe got worried when he realised that this monster possessed higher intelligence for it to assume what they would do. It wanted to keep them from flying away. Caging them in this deserted place until it was hungry again.

"Someone tell the pilot to drop more equipment." Mellisa cried out as she saw the creature rise to its feet.

It didn't wait for a fight but ran off before they lost it into darkness of the sky.

"We need to escape!" Panashe said as she saw Mellisa approaching him.

"No way man. We can't risk being shut down and have our memories wiped by Humba. We follow it once the pilot drops the equipment. "

"Are you crazy? That creature is intelligent enough to predict that..."

"We don't need you here."

"I just saved your only way out of this dump."

"I don't care. The mission has to be successful. We failed once. We won't fail this time."

Panashe stood there at a loss of words as he saw the whole squad prepare for second try. He felt guilt but when the dropbox of equipment came down he refused to restock. He saw them leave the three storey building before he went back into the building. He inspected the building and as he suspected it was also abandoned prematurely without warning. His walk to the rooftop was depressing due to the darkness and bumping into objects.

Fortunately for him the bank was the highest building in the area so he could see the squad from his position. As he observed the squad moving in the dark he saw something move away from the buildings. He knew it was the monster but couldn't really make it out so he continued observing until he realised that the monster was coming back into the bank. He kept himself up there until the creature went into the bank. He started climbing down the building from the sides. He did so as quietly as he could and ran away from the bank.

He went to the squad and told them where their target had settled down and they went back to the bank but this time the creature was in the second floor.