by Alton Reich
> Martin and Zenya were already out of the car and at the edge of the road > when Jordan joined them with the light. The three of them moved off > into > the trees, with Jordan in the lead, shining the beam ahead of them.
> "There," Zenya called out. For just a moment, the light had reflected > off > something silvery-blue, like a pair of eyes.. She pointed in that > direction and Jordan focused the light there. There was another flash > and > then whatever it was turned away, and there was only a dark shadow.
> "Stop! Please," Kleinberg called from somewhere ahead of the agents. > "It's okay."
> Following the sound of his voice, they found him standing between two > trees > only a few yards from the shadow. The animal was walking slowly toward > him.
Jordan stopped and he could hear Zenya and Martin stop next to him. He kept the beam of the flashlight fixed on Kleinberg and the animal.
"This is Sandy," Rudy Kleinberg explained, "my favorite. I thought she was dead."
Sandy looked toward the three agents, sniffing deeply at the air. Jordan could feel the hair on the back of his neck bristle in anticipation, and he brought his P225 up slightly.
"It's ok," Kleinberg said gently, "Don't make any sudden moves and she'll be fine. She's quite docile, actually. They considered her to be a failure."
There was a low growl from off to the left, and Sandy spun with surprising quickness. Something lept from the undergrowth and Sandy launched herself at it, colliding in mid air. The two creatures landed amid the snapping of branches and snarls of fury.
There was another growl from the right and Jordan turned toward the sound. He saw movement and fired two quick shots as another of the creatures lunged toward Kleinberg. There was a howl of pain as the creature knocked Kleinberg to the ground.
Jordan cursed and ran toward Kleinberg. The creature had latched on to his arm and was shaking him back and forth despite its own wounds.
Martin grabbed the furry beast and flung it off of Kleinberg. It landed on its side, rolled and snarled at them.
Jordan squeezed off two more shots. One caught the creature in the chest and the other snapped its head back. It crumpled to the ground in a heap.
"Now look what you've done," Kleinberg said walking over and staring at the rapidly expanding pool of blood on the ground.
"It was trying to kill you," Zenya pointed out.
"I could have commanded it off of me," Kleinberg said.
"It really didn't look that way to me," Martin said.
A yelp of pain came from somewhere off in the woods. Kleinberg looked in that direction, squinting futilely in the darkness for a glimpse of something.
"We really should get out of here," Jordan said.
"We have to find Sandy. I thought I lost her, and I won't lose her again."
"Doctor, I really think we should get out of here. You need to have that arm looked at," Jordan insisted taking his uninjured arm and leading him back toward the car.
NRPG:
Despite rumours to the contrary I did not sail too far west and fall off the planet. I'm here and writing again. I had a bit of ZULU mental block that seems to have cleared up.
I'd say the next step is to get the team back together again to try to figure out what to do about the creatures in the sewer system. Any ideas?