Continued from Chapter 26, here.

“We’re in over our heads. There’s no denying it.”

That was how Jaspers started the conversation that evening, and it said something that he didn’t put in a single curse word. Just stated the fact, plain and simple, impossible to debate.

“So what do you think we should do?” I asked.

He shrugged one shoulder. “Hell if I know. I’m sure glad that I’m not the leader here, though. Be a bloody awful job to have sitting on my shoulders.” Continue reading →

Continued from Chapter 25, here.

I looked around the control room at the prone, limp, dead bodies of the scientists. My mouth dropped open as I realized, in a rush of horror, what had happened to them.

“The orbs,” I said softly, staring at the dead men and women.

It didn’t take long to dawn on the rest of my team. They also looked around, faces twisting in revulsion.

“Mon god,” Henry breathed. “And it destroyed them, just like that. It could have done the same to us, if…” Continue reading →

Continued from Chapter 24, here.

The creature, entity, whatever it was in that strange space that felt both real and unreal, recoiled from Feng’s defenses. Knocked back, it smacked into an orb that had glowed a rather sallow and ugly yellow color, shattering it. It reared up, but the rest of us fell in around Feng, doing our best to help her defend Sara in this strange un-reality.

I didn’t know where I was or what was happening, but I still knew that Sara needed our help. That drive, instinct deeper than any thought, commanded me to do all that I could to keep her safe.

For a moment, the tentacle swelled up. It grew and grew, and even though nothing existed in that void besides ourselves, the broken and fading orbs around us, and this attacker, I felt it grow. It became larger and larger, bigger than any monster on Earth. If this were Earth, surely it would be outside the atmosphere of the planet. It was as if the moon itself, some celestial god, had descended down to crush us beneath his heel. Continue reading →

Continued from Chapter 23, here.

For a moment, the influx of sights, sounds, and sensations was nearly overwhelming.

All around me, alarms shrieked and systems failed. Scientists shouted and threw themselves away from controls that sparked or burst into flames, a couple of them screaming in either surprise or pain. I saw the rest of my team looking around, hands flying to weapons as they searched for an opponent. I saw Orville come staggering out from the break room next door, one hand reaching up to press against his face, smearing a rather crudely drawn Sharpie image on his face.

My focus, however, narrowed in on Sara. She stood there, just inside the main entrance, almost perfectly still. She looked up, at the chaos erupting all around her.

“Dad,” she whispered, her lips spreading into a little smile. Continue reading →