"We'll be right behind you. Just outside that shack," Kalimba promised. He watched as Zoe took a shaky breath and turned, creeping toward the wooden shed.

  The wood exuded a damp aroma, marked by numerous cracks and holes. As she approached, she became very aware of the crunching of sand under her shoes, slowing her walking to a shuffle.

  Gazing through one of many holes in the decayed shack, she discerned nothing within, yet the gentle snores of a child reached her ears.

  The front door squealed loudly as she turned the knob and pushed it open. She stopped, holding her breath, staring ahead into the black abyss. 'I can't see anything right now. There could be a gun pointed at me less than six inches away, and I couldn't even see it!' She looked back, seeing the group a few yards away—Yahd had buried most of his body in the cold sand; only his face and arms stuck out, the light from the stars above glinting off his pistol.

  'This will be risky,' Zoe thought, as a small buzz emanated from her. Putting as little effort as possible, she closed her eyes, manifesting a tiny bit of energy that delicately bathed the shack's interior with an evening orange light. 'Good, just enough.'

  She took a large step forward, entering the shack. Cringing as she heard the loud creak of a floorboard under her foot. She put her hand in her pocket and pulled out several cards, holding them between her fingers in her left hand. With another step, she stepped over the sleeping man on the floor. She stood over him, both feet on either side of the Palmer. Her energy extended to the cards, hardening them. She brought the cards down toward his neck. Hearing a light cough, her head shot to the side as Melody turned over in her sleep. 'What am I doing? I can't do that…Not again.'

  Zoe stepped over the man and took another few steps toward Melody. She crouched down, examining her face in the orange dim light. 'That's definitely her,' she thought as she held her breath once more, reaching down and lightly scooping up the sleeping child. After several large steps, she was out the door, and lightly jogging toward the car.

  "You did it!" Asher yelled.

  Everyone stopped and stared at him with wide eyes, then turned back to the shed, but no movement was heard.

  Zoe looked down at the girl in her arms, but she didn't stir. She deactivated her energy and turned to Asher, glaring at him.

  "Sorry," he hissed, covering his mouth with his hands.

  They started the Jeep, and as Yahd drove forward, it sounded like a shotgun went off right outside their car.

  "What the!" Asher jumped in shock.

  "Shit!" Yahd yelled, his gaze fixed on the shack as he swiftly stamped his foot onto the gas pedal.

  Mitani looked around wildly, "What was that?"

  Zoe looked at Melody, slumped beside her, still not awake.

  "It just backfired," Yahd said. His eyes widened as he glanced at the rearview mirror. He witnessed a man sprint out and make his way to the adjacent parked truck. In a matter of seconds, the headlights ignited, casting the interior of their vehicle in a glaring, urine-hued glow.

  Yahd swore under his breath as set his eyes back in front of him. "Someone shoot him!"

  Asher pulled out a pistol from the seat pocket in front of him, rolling down the window, and stuck his head out. "Ah!" he screamed, pulling himself back in. "Sand got in my eye!" He growled, furiously wiping at his eye with his coat sleeve.

  Mitani opened the other window, sticking his arm outside. He blind-fired six shots in rapid succession, each missing their target by a mile. Zoe winced at each ear-piercing explosion. "Just drive!" Mitani screeched, pulling his arm back in.

  "I Am!" Yahd screamed back.

  "Shut it!" Kalimba yelled. He turned, looking into the backseat. "Is she alright?"

  "I don't know," Zoe said, "she's somehow still asleep. She has a normal pulse, and her breathing is fine."

  "Okay, good," he turned to Yahd. "Can we lose him?"

  "Hey, Zoe," Yahd yelled. "Did'ja see what he was wearing?"

  "He looked like the other soldiers, I guess."

  Yahd swore under his breath once more, "I doubt I can do much—would be hard to lose most people in a desert. Guy probably has some driving training, so at some point we'll need to deal with this guy!"

  As they zoomed through the dark desert, their headlights caught something in the distance—a towering presence.

  "I think that's a forest," Asher said. "Those are definitely trees!"

  A frown crossed Zoe's face, 'I have an idea, but there's no way- What would 'she' do in this situation? She'd be the one to…'

  "I've got an idea," Zoe mumbled.

  "What'ja say?" Yahd asked.

  "I'm just saying that I have an idea," she said a little louder. "Can you go right next to the forest?" She asked Yahd, "Not in it, but as close as possible."

  "I mean, maybe," he pondered.

  "Speed up as much as possible," she un-clicked her seatbelt. "I just need two seconds where we're out of his line of sight. When that happens, slow down, and I'll grab her and hide in the forest. He won't realize this, and will keep chasing."

  "Then what?"

  "The forest doesn't look very big. We can ambush him on the other side. I can run through it fast, I think," the more she talked, she heard the confident timber in her voice begin to fade.

  Yahd glanced over at Kalimba, who studied her intently. After a moment, he nodded, his expression firm. “Okay,” Yahd said. He pressed down on the accelerator, the jeep bounding over uneven terrain, weaving through a sea of stumps and fallen branches. His hands gripped the wheel tightly as the forest loomed closer, its shadows swallowing the fading sunlight. ‘There!’ he thought as he noticed the headlights behind them disappear for just a second behind the dense tree line. Seizing the opportunity, he slammed the brakes hard. Sand and gravel exploded into the air as the jeep skidded to a jarring stop. "Go!"

  Without hesitation, Zoe jumped out of the jeep, clutching Melody tightly as Asher flung open the door to clear her path. In the split second before she moved, the faint orange hue of her aura ignited around her, expanding outward like a flickering fire. She bolted into the forest, her energy lighting her way.

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Palmer’s eyes narrowed as he brought the jeep to a halt a short distance behind them. Was it his imagination, or had he just seen an orange glow? A shimmer of light—faint but distinct—dancing between the trees, vanishing the moment he focused on it. Almost like a flame in the woods.

  Zoe sprinted deeper into the forest, her feet crunching over leaves and twigs. Melody began to stir in her arms, groaning softly before yawning and stretching.

  "P-palmer?" Melody murmured, her voice thick with sleep.

  Zoe opened her mouth, but hesitated, unsure how to respond. “It’s okay. I’m—”

  "You're not Palmer!" She wriggled violently, kicking and clawing at Zoe. Her tiny nails scratched at Zoe’s arms, and her teeth sank into the fabric of Zoe’s jacket.

  'This doesn't hurt, but it makes it difficult to run,' she thought as she ducked under a low-hanging branch. She winced, hearing Melody's blood-curdling screams for someone named Palmer. Zoe winced but tightened her grip, dodging a tangle of roots jutting from the ground. She leaped over a fallen log, her eyes darting ahead. And then, through the shifting shadows of the trees, she spotted it.

  A slender, white two-story house stood at the heart of the forest. It looked as if it had been plucked from a suburban neighborhood and dropped in the wilderness, its polished exterior glaringly out of place amidst the tangled vines and ancient trees.

  Meanwhile, the creature’s blood-stained grin cut through the darkness as it emerged from a modest orange stucco home in the village it had just ravaged. Inside, the aftermath resembled a tornado's chaotic dance—upturned tables and chairs, scratches gouged deep into the walls, and streaks of blood marking its path of destruction. It sniffed the air, picking through the mingled scents of fear and death, but finding nothing else worth eating.

  It lowered its head to the ground, catching Melody's faint scent through the chaos. A strange look crossed its face as it cocked its head to the side. “He-help…Help me,” it mimicked in a hauntingly perfect replication of a woman's voice it had heard moments ago. Then, with a low growl, it sprinted toward the forest, its speed tearing up the sand behind it.

  "Stop struggling!" Zoe complained, eventually dropping Melody on the couch inside the abandoned home. She held up her hands, "I'm not here to hurt you, okay?"

  "Where's Palmer?" Melody yelled, her eyes closed and her face in a deep frown.

  "I-I don't know who…is that the guy you were with?"

  Melody nodded furiously. "Take me back!"

  "Can we be cordial? Please?"

  Melody scooted off the couch, stumbling forward, screaming, "I don't know what that means!" She bumped into Zoe and fell backward.

  "Watch where you're going!" Zoe said, quickly getting irritated at the loud yelling, grabbing the squirming child, placing her back on the couch, "Are you blind or something?"

  "Yeah," Melody said.

  "Wait, what?" Zoe crouched down, looking at her, "Like, you can't see me? Even if you open your eyes."

  Melody sighed like she'd had this conversation over one thousand times before, "No! I can't!"

  "Can you give me just thirty seconds to explain what's happening? Uninterrupted. Just thirty seconds—not even a minute. I'm not here to hurt you; in fact, the exact opposite."

  There was a long silence before Melody spat out, "Fine! Hurry up!"

  "Like I said," Zoe started, "Me and four other people came here to rescue you from the compound you were held in. We are here to RESCUE you, okay?" She talked quickly, but sternly. "We are not trying to harm you. If we wanted to, we could have."

  "Okay," Melody said. "I want to see Palmer! He was saving me!"

  "Oh," Zoe said, crouching down on the floor, deep in thought. She took out her box of cards, absently flipping through them as she tried to make sense of everything. 'So, if I had to guess, Palmer was a rogue soldier of the compound. They seem to have some type of previous relationship, so he definitely wasn't like us…I need to tell the rest before they kill him!' She got up, pocketing the cards, and stood in front of Melody, "I'm going to take you to him. We're all gonna rescue you, okay?"

  Melody's face broke out into a wide, mostly toothless grin, "Really?" Tears of joy streaming down her cheeks, "You mean it?"

  "There she is!" Asher yelled, pointing ahead into the forest. Yahd squinted through the windshield, spotting Zoe emerging from the forest with Melody in her arms.

  “What the hell is she doing?” Kalimba muttered, slamming on the brakes. The jeep skidded to a halt just as Zoe walked onto the dry desert sand. She carefully set Melody down beside her, then raised her hands in the air.

  They all watched, faces wracked with confusion, as Zoe walked from the forest onto the dry desert sand. When she saw the headlights of Palmer's truck round the side of the forest, she placed Melody by her side, and put her hands in the air.

  Yahd, Asher, and Kalimba all got out of the jeep. Yahd stood behind the vehicle, aiming his gun at the truck that was quickly approaching. His pink aura surrounded him.

  Asher ran to Zoe, asking her what she thought she was doing. Zoe stood firm, her orange aura faintly glowing. “Put your hands in the air,” she said calmly. “He’s not an enemy.”

  Palmer’s truck screeched to a halt a few yards away. He stepped out, rifle in hand, his gaze flicking between the jeep and Zoe. His eyes narrowed when he spotted the faint glows surrounding both Yahd and Zoe. “What in the world is this?” he muttered. “Some kind of trick, right?”

  "Yahd!" Asher screamed, "Lower the gun! He's on our side!"

  'Bullshit!' Yahd and Palmer thought, continuing to aim their weapons at each other.

  Palmer faltered, noticing the grin spreading across Yahd's face.

  The air was thick with tension, each second stretching endlessly. Yahd grinned, his finger curling around the trigger of his pistol. ‘I’ve got him. It's perfect! Headshot Bang!’