Page 50 of Out of Peril

“Something like that,” someone said.

“Are they all witches?” Taylor asked.

“Yes.”

“Can you show us your powers?” Taylor asked.

“She needs more room,” someone said and the boy turned to the woman and winked.

I had a bad feeling about this.

“Open the door and let her out,” Walker insisted.

“You heard him. Do it!” Taylor demanded.

“Grab the brats,” one of the men said.

They reached for the kids and a roar erupted from the small woman. And then she shifted into the most hideous and terrifying creature I'd ever seen, and I'd seen a hell of a lot of weird shit out there. She had the lower half of a cheetah, wings of black feathers that spanned at least ten feet wide, two extra arms like Eagle's claws, and the face of a wolf.

What the hell was it?

“I give you the beast!” one of the men yelled proudly.

I panned between Taylor and Walker. They both seemed shocked.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Taylor said, echoing my thoughts exactly.

I couldn't look away as I stared up at her.

She grabbed the kids and took flight as people ran screaming. It was complete chaos.

A gun fired opposite to me trying to shoot her down. Instincts had me sighting in on the shooter instead of the beast. There were kids involved. Were they insane?

“Was that gunfire? What the hell's going on over there?” Silas barked.

Unlike the rest of the team, I wore two separate coms. One was open mic to the team, and the other was just between me and Silas. Sometimes if we were setup with multiple shooters there would be more on that channel but today was supposed to be nothing more than an observation day. Shit like that wasn't supposed to go down.

Because I wore multiple coms, I could hear everything but had to tap a button for anyone to hear me. I tapped for Silas.

“Looks like one of the witches got lose. I've never seen anything like her before. Some sort of hybrid. If I hadn't seen her in human form for myself I'd swear they had an Experiment up in here. She's taking off with two kids. I have the shooter in my sights.”

I was too busy sighting in on the shooter to realize that she had circled back until Taylor yelled, “Get down!”

I whipped my gun back towards Taylor just in time to see the monster scoop Walker up in her claws and fly off.

“Walter!” Taylor screamed.

“If you have a shot, take it. I do not want to explain to Michael that we lost his kid,” Silas said.

I sighted in on her, but she was already out over the water.

“If I take her down, Walker goes down too. Even over water he's not likely to survive a fall like that. Please advise.”

“Take the shot,” Silas said.

I had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach as I set my rifle for interception and fired.

She moved so quickly. There was no way I could have anticipated speed like that.

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