CHAPTER 27

Moving forward with my gun in hand, I wonder why the hell I'm stuck on inspection duty with Alpha 1&2.

The humans were frightened by what happened earlier and when it was revealed to us by a few panicked parents that their teenage sons are missing, Sir Locke ordered and tagged the four of us into a team to search around for them.

Both Alpha males walked a couple of paces in front while I and some 5'5ft blonde walked behind.

She isn't much of a talker and I'm fine with that, I don't need any distracting chatter cutting off my concentration.

The four of us made sure to keep our eyes and ears on alert, the approaching brown cloud of dust and toxins suspicious.

After searching through the body of the teenage male that ran forward screaming, we inspected his clothes and found them to contain a heavy amount of yellow dust layered on what's left of the ripped pieces.

And to make things worse, the particles of dust also contained some substance of toxins, alarming us of where he might have been and where the others are probably located.

We only have 50mins left before the aircraft arrive to take away the humans and the drones are sent to commence a thorough cleanup on the entire state of Washington.

While the others and Sir Locke are taking care of damage control, we have to make sure there isn't any threat hiding behind the cloud of fume with the humans are still within the area.

"Everyone turn on your detectors!"

The command came from our new team leader, Kevin Hatch, his scratchy voice carried through the wireless earpiece mics worn beneath our mask.

And we all do as instructed by rotating the circular edges of the black, leather watch on our wrists.

Immediately, the device comes to life with a beeping sound and the orange screen shows off a digital sensor, right now the sensor is inactive but as Kevin Hatch lifts a finger in the air and motions for us to move forward, it starts to react as our bodies become encircled by the cloud of brown.

"Turn on your vision goggles!"

Ince again his scratchy command fills our ears and I raise my hand to press on the small red button hidden beneath the straps connected to our masks.

Immediately, the lens of our googles come to life and our vision ahead can be seen through a green haze.

We walked forward for a couple of minutes, our detectors not picking up anything, until the loud command of Kevin Hatch startled me from my thoughts.

"Stop!" He barks, causing me to stare at the blurry shapes of both males a couple of paces to my right.

"What is it?" The other male asks, his voice filled with concern.

"Something's wrong, my detector seems to be acting up." Kevin Hatch says, cursing out loud as he taps on the screen of his watch.

His words cause the rest of us to glance at the orange screen of the device and I frown when I see how hazy the screen is starting to become.

It keeps reacting like a bad tv network, going in and out of focus for a couple of minutes until the screen of the device completely blanks out.

"What the fuck is wrong with this thing?" The blonde asks, unlatching his watch as he takes it off and turns it over in confusion. "It was working this morning–"

"The magnetism in the air must be high." The quiet female to my side spoke for the first time since we were grouped, her words causing the rest of us to turn to her for more explanation.

"The sensor is a prototype that's currently still in the works under the research department back at HQ. It probably has some defective problems." She sighs.

Scoffing, I take off the gadget in anger and drop it to the ground by my feet. Stepping on it, I ignore the stares directed my way and the sound of the device shattering into pieces beneath my boot.

"Don't look at me like that, it was useless to us anyway."

"But still you shouldn't have–"

"Look, we're here to scout for the presence of shadows. We only carried these gadgets because we didn't want to seem threatening to the humans, but as you can see none of them are here and our only option right now is to let out our senses if we want to survive." I say, dropping my gun as I let my powers come forward.

As soon as I do, I close my eyes and feel the tingle of a rapidly approaching presence, I only had time to yell. "Watch out!" in alarm before the female by my side gets tackled to the ground as a loud screeching caw pierces through the air.

Turning, I didn't even get the chance to help her out before I'm knocked off my feet as well. My body is thrown into the air as sharp talons grip the back of my suit and pick me off my feet, not less than a couple of seconds later I'm dropped to the ground and land hard on my left hand. And a small crack fills my ears along with my cry of pain.

"What the hell is going on?" I hear one of the male yell, right after the other yells out my name in panic.

"Aurora, are you okay!"

A massive gust of wind suddenly wraps around us as the air gets disturbed, the flapping of wings just as prominent as the sound of more screeching caws.

The hazy cloud of dust and toxins suddenly being blown into our faces causes distractions, my vision goggles only able to pick sight of a large couple of birds flying high in the air.

I flinch in surprise when I feel the presence of someone drop right by my side, their hands wrapped around my body as I'm helped to my feet.

"Aurora, are you okay?" The blonde female questions, and I nod.