“Is that some kind of tower?” MacAlister said, pointing with a gloved finger at a dark line that rose out of the main body of black on the screen.
“Impossible to tell. It could just be an artifact of the software,” Reilly said. “Sorry, sir. We have to get closer if we’re going to know for certain.”
MacAlister sighed, thought about it for a second, then said, “Go ahead. But only close enough that we can positively ID whatever is in that crater.”
The camera zoomed out as the UAV began moving forward again, the distant image gradually becoming clearer but still remaining frustratingly indistinguishable.
“Does that look like—Woah!” Reilly exclaimed as something zoomed in front of the UAV, filling the lens for a moment, buffeting it enough that the image jerked violently up and to the right. “What the fuck was that?” He placed the aerial vehicle in hover mode and panned the camera first right then left, searching the surrounding area for whatever had just dived by the aircraft. Nothing but red ground and blue sky filled the screen.
“Maybe it’s above it?” Emily said.
Reilly panned the camera up toward the twelve-o’clock position.
“Ahh, fuck!” said Reilly. Something was falling toward the UAV, a silhouette dropping out of the sky, using the sun to hide its approach like a World War I fighter plane.
“Move it!” yelled MacAlister, but Reilly was already ahead of him and had shifted the quadcopter to the right into a shallow dive that tilted the distant horizon until it was almost at ninety degrees to the perpendicular. Then the video feed was spinning crazily as the shape collided with the UAV. A set of jaws and a single red eye appeared briefly, the mouth lined with two rows of serrated teeth. It appeared on the screen for a second before disappearing in the twirling blur of images as the machine continued its tumble toward the ground. The final image was of a large, red branch rushing toward them, then the screen went black. Two words appeared in flashing white on the screen: SIGNAL LOST.
“Well shit!” said Mac as he stood from his crouch, picked up his rifle, and slung it across his shoulder. “Looks like we’re walking from here, gentlemen.”
“No way, Emily. You are staying put, right here where I know you’re safe,” MacAlister insisted for the umpteenth time since the drone had been knocked out of the sky.
Emily continued to ignore him as she collected her own gear.
“I can always detain you, you know?” he said. “I can have Burris here keep you under close arrest.”
“Thor!” Emily commanded. The big dog was at her side in an instant, his ears up and his eyes on the three men, the tone of his mistress’s voice communicating the rising tension he already sensed. “And I could always have Thor here argue the point with him.” She nodded toward Burris. As if on cue, Thor’s long pink tongue slipped from between his jaws and ran over the length of his muzzle as he licked his chops, a long strand of drool dripping to the floor. Emily thought she saw Burris swallow hard. He did throw a nervous glance in Reilly and MacAlister’s direction.
“I’m going with or without your ‘permission,’” she continued. “I have to know what that thing is, what kind of threat it poses to us. Jesus! It’s not about my safety, or my pigheadedness. This is about our survival, the future of our species, of which there are very fucking few of us left. If we’re going to be able to fight these invaders, then I have to know everything!”
MacAlister continued to insist Emily was going nowhere. She wasn’t sure whether to be angry or flattered at MacAlister’s determination that she remain behind, but it didn’t really matter either way, she was going, he just did not realize it yet.
“Look,” Emily continued, taking some of the edge and attitude out of her voice, “I’ve survived a trek across this country that would make Lewis and Clark think twice. I’ve already proved myself. You need me, not the other way around.”
MacAlister regarded her with those cool green eyes, his face betraying nothing. “Okay,” he said eventually, “but you have to keep up. We won’t slow down our pace for you. We’re out of here in five minutes. Be ready or stay here.”
MacAlister pulled a compass from the breast pocket of his combat jacket and took a bearing on their position. “We’re going to head for the trench south of the crater. That’s a good five-mile hike as the crow flies, but it should get us close enough to the crater that we can get some optics on it and see what’s what. Normally, I could travel five miles in an hour or so, but we have no idea what it’s going to be like on the ground down there, but if Emily’s prior experiences hold true for Las Vegas, then it’s going to be a bit of a slog, so we’ll pace ourselves, but I want to get to our rendezvous point by early afternoon. That’ll give us enough time to assess the situation and still have enough of the day left for us to make it back here again. I do not want to spend a night out there. Burris! You’ll be staying with the helo. Drop anything that sticks its head up here that isn’t us. Am I understood?”
“Yes, sir,” the young sailor replied, obviously nervous about being left alone.
“You sure you don’t want to stay here?” MacAlister asked Emily as they waited at the roof access while Reilly collected his gear.
She turned to face him. “I’m sure,” she said, trying to keep the offense she still felt from her voice. “Besides, if I’m not with you, who’s going to rescue your Scottish ass the next time you get into trouble?”
MacAlister let out a deep guffaw of laughter. “You are so right. One question though: Who the hell are Lewis and Clark?”
She couldn’t help herself and smiled back. Something passed between them right there on the roof of the hotel. She felt the energy flow between them like water, warm and comfortable. Now the only question was whether they would stay alive long enough to act on those feelings.
CHAPTER 24
Emily felt a disquieting sense of déjà vu shiver through her as she stood in the dim stairwell of the casino. Memories of her flight through her apartment complex in the first days of the end flashed through her mind. They disappeared as the beam from MacAlister’s high-intensity flashlight illuminated the cramped landing as though it were day.
“Something wrong?” MacAlister asked when he saw her hesitate on the first step as Reilly handed him his backpack and he slipped it over his shoulders.
“Just some memories I’d rather forget. Nothing I can’t handle,” she said and shrugged her own backpack of supplies, including a digital camera rig MacAlister had supplied her, onto her shoulders. She checked her shotgun, then double-checked she still had the extra ammo she had stashed in the pockets of the light jacket she was wearing. She had more than enough to ruin any thing’s day. Still, the echoing clang of the door to the roof swinging shut made her heart skip a beat as it echoed down the empty stairwell like the first toll of a funeral bell.
Nothing to worry about, she told herself, and took a deep breath. She had Thor, MacAlister, and Reilly with her. They should be more than capable of handling anything that tried to screw with them. And she had been through much worse all on her own, so she would be damned if she was going to lose it here. But still a vague shadow of unease hovered over her heart.