The team sat around a small stone table I had made, eating in silence. The last few days catching up to us, too much happened in such a short amount of time. It didn't seem real.

“I'm sorry.” Lucille said. We looked at her she sat shoulders hunched staring into a mug of hot tea.

“For what?” asked Jimmy.

“For everything,” Lucille whispered. “For the trip. For being stuck out here. It’s my fault.”

“No, it's not,” Stacy said as she got up from her seat and hugged Lucille.

“Yes, it is.” Lucille said looking up from her mug. “We should have never left as fast as we did.”

“What do you mean?” I asked as I put my fork down food all but forgotten. Lucille looked at me and winched looking at the team she shook her head. She put her mug down and patted Stacy on the back. Stacy let go and sat back down all eyes were on Lucille.

“I… haven't been completely honest, with all of you. Especially with you Sledge.” She buried her face into her hands weeping. Jimmy reached over and put his hand on Lucille grabbing her shoulder. She looked up at Jimmy.

“We need to know what's going on.” Jimmy said. “We promise to hear you out, ok.” Jimmy looked at us one after another pointedly one after another we nodded

“Thanks,” Lucille said. “The Explorers League… we’re broke. Have been for weeks. I’ve been paying you all with what was left of my life savings. Another few weeks and I’d have been completely broke.”

“Why didn't you tell us!” Stacy yelled. “We’re a team. We could have figured something out. I have savings we all do.” Lucille looked down in shame.

“I couldn't… I made promises… promises I shouldn't have made to get the league started. If I took your money it could be argued you were partners. They would have gone after you all too if you had helped me.”

“Oh Lucille,” Jimmy said shaking his head.

“I know,” said Lucille. “I should have said something but I couldn't. It was getting bad, I was running out of money and time. Then Sledge walked into my office. I saw an opportunity, a high mage walking into the office looking for work.” She looked at me with eyes full of sorrow and regret. “I'm so sorry for getting you stuck out here with us.” She said.

“I'm not… understanding, did you trick me? You knew we would get stuck?” I asked.

“No, no, no,” she said waving her hands desperately. “I had no idea any of this would happen. It's just, that we should have waited a day or two to go over the trips, send out drones again and do an overview of the trip. Honestly, if I wasn't so desperate we should have waited a week or more to plan and go over any new developments. But like I said I was despite, I’ve talked to every ability user, mage, and high mage more than once about joining or sponsoring us. No one wanted to, and then when I was about to give up… you asked for a job.” Lucille shook her head and took a large gulp of tea.

“I rushed us out into the field, unprepared. Because I thought if I could get you out of the city. Away from better offers, you would want to stick around. Now we're out in the wilderness alone cut off from earth. We were attacked for god's sake, Stacy could have died. I just wanted… I thought that… if I could…” She fell apart heaving and crying. It was an ugly, soul-ripping, despite cry. Seeing Lucille taking all the blame, I would have liked to let her. I would have loved to be blameless, to be mad and point fingers. But I couldn't I may be a lot of things, most bad. A coward isn't one of them if I'm to blame I’ll admit it I stood up. Locking eyes with Lucille she winced a bit but refused to look away. Jimmy stood up, I looked at him I could tell what he was thinking. He was ready to stop me, he knew he couldn't do a thing to me. He saw the things I could do but he stood tall and met my eyes and they said ‘I will do anything and everything I can to stop you if you try anything. My respect for him shot up higher than it already had, I nod to him in understanding. Shakily he sits back down his courage spent. Stacy looked between us confused. Sio just smiled at Jimmy. Lucille was looking at him as if she had never seen him before.

“AHEM,” I clear my throat, and the whole group looks at me. “You are not the only one that messed up.” I said looking at Lucille. “I overestimated myself and underestimated the monsters of this world. I’ve spent my life in war, fighting going from front line to front line. While others died I survived, flourished even. A part of me doesn't want to admit this but I have to. The monster that attacked us yesterday. I was outclassed and like I said overconfident. I didn't keep my war axe with me, I didn't have any real weapons on me. I just thought I have magic now what can go wrong. I should have been upfront about how little I know about magic. I should have had you wait for me to get up to snuff. But I didn't, took on the responsibility of security for this group with only a day of formal magic training and a bit of self-study. And now here we are, alone with no extraction for weeks. You're not the only one to blame for this, if your sins get us killed then so did mine.” Saying my peace I sat down, Lucille wiped her eyes clear and reached over and took my hand.

“Thanks,” was all Lucille said but so much filled that one word. More than I could understand.

“I don't know about all of you,” said Stacy. “...but blame Jimmy.”

“What?” said Jimmy shocked “How! What?!”

“Too much salt.” She said smugly as she pointed to her eggs. She looked at me as she pointed to Jimmy. “I told you, he over salts everything.” Jimmy throws his hands in the air.

“It is salty,” said Sio laughing. The tension lifted we all relaxed, no words were said in forgiveness or blame. Lucille and I knew we were forgiven.

“So,” said Jimmy to me. “You have how much magic training?”

“Maybe about 7 hours.” I said ashamed. “My Challenge is fighting a hoard of monsters. I killed one but another came out of the ground and spired me through the chest. I died, my instructor… I don't know if he was intimidated or freaked out but he punked out and had my classmate give me this.” I said pointing to my wrist. “It has all of our magic research tips and tricks loaded into it. I’ve been self-studying, it's not going all that well.”

Jimmy patted my shoulder in sympathy.

“Why is it not going well,” asked Lucille.

“I have to sift through pages of research to find anything relevant. A lot of the information doesn't even have anything useful it's just observations and half-baked ideas for the most part. And when I do find something good it's more luck the anything else.” Lucille thought for a moment her eyes shining she started to slap the table excitedly.

“I got an idea.” She said pointing to Stacy. “I want our drones set up and scouting on auto pilot. Instead of watching the cameras live, we will go over everything at night.”

“Ok,” said Stacy a bit lost. “That's easy but, most of my job is watching the drones. What am I going to do?”

“We,” said Lucille looking at everyone. “Will be going over all the information Sledge has on magic and start going over it. We find, categorise, sort, and expand on anything useful. Until we found a new site to relocate to were all just stuck doing nothing."

"I like it," said Jimmy as he looked to me. "Can you send us the logs? We can start right away." I taped my wrist bang and a screen popped up. After a few minutes of opening and closing tabs, I found an upload icon. I have no idea how they figured out how to share information with a computer from an enchanted band of rock but they did. I just followed the 4 step instructions and Stacy's laptop had all the files. Stacy started sorting the info as it was uploading she moved fast.

"What will you do sledge?" asked Sio. I didn't have to think on it hard "My item, I can barely use it. I need to practice lugging that thing around. So while you guys sort everything out I'll be swinging my Axe." With that plan, we all got moving heading outside the cool morning air gently swept by ruffling my hair. The sun was hiding behind the mountains so I had a good deal of shade to work in. I never minded the summer heat much but I burned easy. So I learned to avoid the sun whenever I could. Making my way to the jeep track I opened the back and grabbed the Axe. filling the item with mana took only a few seconds. But in a fight, a few seconds could mean life or death. Heaving the item I found a good cool spot. I let go of the mana and the axe head dropped sinking into the ground deeper than I expected.

“Ok,” I said to myself. “The first thing I need to work on is calling out my magic faster. I need it to be instinctual!” I didn't call my mana I demanded it. in a rush, the mana flew into my arms and into my Axe. I lifted the weapon high planted my feet and swung letting the mana go for just half a second. The Axe moved with momentum and speed I wasn't expecting but with a force of will I called my mana again rushing to infuse the Axe before it dropped to the ground. It was close, the blade-cut grass before I could fully recover.

“Close, but too slow. Took too much effort to get the mana to move.”

with a plan of action, I repeated the swing. Like a light switch, my mana was off and on again. Every swing I let the axe drop with its crushing weight. Then I again filled the item with mana using the momentum and speed in my next swing. As the hours blurred the Axe went from a slow chopper to a storm of steel and death. The faster I called my mana the smoother I moved my axe as the hours flew by I felt a connection to the magic I hadn't felt before, a tether of some kind was forming.

“SLEDGE.” Sio yelled. I recovered mid-swing pulling the axe head up and resting the shaft on my shoulder. I eased the flow of magic it flowed into the axe in an easy trickle. It was by no means perfect yet but it was steady.

“What’s up?” I called back Sio walked to me seeing as I was done swinging my axe in every direction.

“Lunch.” She said as she looked me over her nose crinkled at smelling me. Looking at the sky I was surprised the sun had moved as much as it had. I guess I got lost in my practice.

“Sounds good Sio I’ll be a second.” I walked to the moat and called on my water mana, it responded faster than before but not nearly as fast as the earth mana. A large ball of water rose out of the moat and enveloped me. I spun the water around me feeling the sweat and grime wash away. With a thought, the dirt water was flung away from me far into the lake. I was clean and dry and it only took a few seconds. Sio looked on amused shaking her head

“Even the way you clean yourself is violent! Ever heard of a bath?” She said.

“Ha.” I say rolling my eyes. “You’re just jealous, who doesn't want a ten-second shower. Be clean and done in a flash.” As we walked Sio looked thoughtful.

“I am jealous,” Sio said. “Not of shower. I like to take my time but of your magic, it would be a lie to say I was not wishing for such power.”

“Oh,” I said. Not really sure how the playful banter gave way to whatever this was. Guilt, tension? “I didn't mean anything by it,” I said lamely. Sio patted my shoulder her hand lingering just a half-second.

“I did not mean to ruin your fun. We both bad at talking it seems.” We walked into the tower, I frowned feeling the enchantment already dissipating. I knew it would unravel but I thought that it would have lasted longer than it did.

“How’s it going?” asked Lucille.

“Good,” I said putting my axe down and letting it lean against the wall. I sat down and grabbed a sandwich, that was somehow salty. Jimmy! “I'm making progress but I'm not there yet. I feel like I'm close to something, not sure what though.”

“Oh, oh, oh…” Stacy said in excitement as she put her laptop in front of me. After a min of scrolling, she pointed at a small bit of text.

“Cast?” I asked reading the headline of the page we were on.

“No,” said Stacy. “It’s C.A.S.T.” She said pointing to the screen.

Rolling my eyes, I looked at the computer reading.

“Cognitive Assimilation of Set Task.” I read looking back at Stacy. I shrugged unimpressed.

“It’s a term I found, essentially it means if you practice a particular magic enough it will become second nature. I found it on a page about healing. Most break the magic into manageable parts. They may practice a C.A.S.T. to heal cuts and then another C.A.S.T. on how to heal broken bones. Sounds like you about to get your first C.A.S.T.”

“Sounds useful,” I said reading the page a bit closer than before. “This will make things more manageable.”

“Yes and no.” Stacy said taking her own sandwich. She took a bite, frowned, and looked Jimmy annoyed. “From what I read so far a C.A.S.T is fast and easy but the magic losses its adaptability. For instance the road-building you did. It could become a C.A.S.T. making building roads fast and easy. But it would only work right in areas with similar ground compositions. For instance, the road you made half the process was getting rid of excess water. If that became a C.A.S.T. in an area with normal amounts of groundwater the road would just become a dry powder. From what I understand only make C.A.S.T’s for specific tasks. Nothing big, I read about a guy who made a C.A.S.T. utilising all his air magic. Apparently, air magic came to him slowly and he got sick of the magic fighting him. The paper didn't go into what he was trying to attempt but all his air magic got stuck in a C.A.S.T. and he couldn't use it for anything else. Said it took him 3 years to break free from the C.A.S.T.” I froze feeling like an idiot. Was I doing the same with earth mana? It sounded like I was. I was making a C.A.S.T to call my mana as fast as I could but only to swing my Axe. I was close, so so very close to trapping my most used magic.

“Well shit.” I said.

“What?” asked Lucille.

“I almost made a C.A.S.T using my earth mana only for my Axe. I was calling ALL my earth mana to move fast, on and off solely into my Axe.”

“Ok, that's not good.” Lucille said. “Good thing you stopped.”

“You think.” Stacy said horrified she looked to me. “Can you make a cast for your axe without losing all your earth mana?” I thought about it I didn't see why I had to lose the mana to my axe. My goal was to call up my magic as fast and easy as I could. I just got lost in using it for my Item.

“I think I can, instead of the C.A.S.T forming for my item I’ll make a C.A.S.T. on calling my mana.” Sio frowned and shook her head.

“Will the C.A.S.T only be useable for earth mana? Will it block all other mana types? Or will you have to make a C.A.S.T for every kind of mana you have.”

“Ok.” I said. “I’m going to move on to different magic for now. We need more information on this. I can do other magics that won't run the risk of losing a branch of magic for years.”

“Sounds good,” Stacy said.

“What sounds good?” Jimmy came into the tower wiping his hands clean. Stacy started going over everything we just talked about the team agreed with me it was too dangerous to go messing around trying to make a C.A.S.T. I went back outside and started experimenting. I grew trees and made sculptures out of rock. I made a whirlpool in the lake I even saw a few monsters get sucked in. i don't think it killed them but it was fun seeing a monster flail around. I tossed around balls of fire and enchanted a rock to float. That took the longest to get right, I even attempted to try the Trent form I read about the other day. The magic felt odd whenever I did anything with something alive. Not that I had a lot of experience but it just felt different. Trying to fuse with a tree was by far the oddest feeling I had felt so far. I expected to feel what the mage wrote about, a slight resistance then dominance. But it felt wrong, I couldn't just sink into the tree to take over. The magic that linked me to my bee, wherever she was hiding. The high mage magic felt like it was pushing back at my attempts to take over the tree. The ancient magic practically whispered ‘That's not how it workers’. Trusting my instincts I let my magic call to the tree. The magic stirring something in the plant I hadn't felt before. I made little progress by the time it was getting dark, I thought it would only take me an hour at most to get the Trent form down. But tree or not I couldn't just dominate a living thing. That night we went over the drone imagery, nothing of note but it was only the first day. We also went over anything of interest with magic. Thankfully nothing as dangerous as C.A.S.T. more pointers and tricks of the trade. Over the next few days, we fell into a rhythm. I practised different magics. Air magic came to me so easy I couldn't believe I hadn't tried using it before. By the end of the first week, I had made good progress with my training. I still hadn't fused with a tree but I was getting closer. A particular large Oak not too far from our camp seemed to feel the easiest to fuse with. I had sunken my arms and part of my chest into the tree before I felt the tree push back. I let go with grace something the tree seemed to like. But I could be reading my magic all wrong it was all guesswork and no matter how I tried to explain it no one on the team got how I knew how a tree felt. I also found my bee, she was sleeping a lot and growing fast. In the few days we've been together, she has grown from a plump bumble bee to the size of my thumb. It was the weekend when something finally happened. We were sitting at dinner when a portal opened and Tompson jumped through. Sio was on him so fast I almost missed it. She had him in some wired arm lock with a wicked knife to his throat.

“Wait, wait,” he yelled. “I'm a friend! Professor Short sent me.”

“It’s ok,” I yelled. “I know him.” Sio looked at me and nodded. Letting the kid go, he fell to the ground in a heap. Stacy ran up to him helping him up. Tompson froze when his eyes beheld Stacy. “Kid,” I said. He sat frozen looking at Stacy.

“Did you hit his head?” Stacy asked Sio. “You all right?” She asks Tompson. He blinks slowly.

“I… I… I can play guitar,” he stutters out. Sio looks at Tompson concerned.

“I don't think I hit his head.” She said. Jimmy and I look at one another as the kid regained his feet. I shake my head as Jimmy tries and fails not to laugh. I grab Tompson by the arm and pull him away from Stacy. A light slap to the face and Tompson blinks his head clear.

“Long time no see Sledge,” Tompson said rubbing his cheek.

“What are you doing here?” I ask. Tompson deflated sagging into himself.

“Professor Short got me out of the city, it's getting real bad.”

“What happened?” asked Jimmy. Tompson went to the table and sat down bringing his face into his hands.

“There was a fight.” Tompson started. “It’s confusing I wasn't there but I’ll explain what I can. A group of about 30 people tried to confiscate the Rock. The group had a few ability users but most of it was military. I don't think the officers in the military knew what was going on. But the group was armed, they rushed the coliseum. A group of three mages were using the Rock I don't know what they were doing with it but when the military group rushed into the coliseum… They saw the mages…” Tompson stopped speaking his shoulders hunched over. I stood next to him putting my hand on his shoulder he looked at me his eyes were wet. No tears had fallen Tompson was doing everything he could to not cry. He took a deep breath and wiped his eyes.

“They saw the mages and started shooting, two of them got shot up real bad before the third made some kind of shield. He thought his fellows were dead, I guess. Seeing his friends killed made him snap. I was told the mage killed most of the group in one go. A few ran away, well they tried to. The mage went after the ones who ran. If that's all that happened it would be bad but it got worse. One of the ones who got away was military he had a radio, he called for backup saying a mage had gone crazy. Before the upper brass could do anything to stop the military it was too late. It was insane, I was working cleaning a table and I start hearing fireworks start going off. At least I thought they were fireworks, the owner grabbed me and the staff and we hid in the basement. After a few hours, Professor Short shows up to see if I'm ok, well me and his girlfriend.” Tompson laughs.

“There were so many bodies, from what I heard at least half of our military is dead. Part of the city is destroyed, looks like someone melted a bunch of houses looks like they're made of wax now. That's why I'm here Professor Short wanted me out of the city.”

“What do we do?” asked Stacy trembling.

“I…” said Lucille. “I don't know, everything is so bad. How can things keep getting worse?!” The team looked lost, afraid. Maybe I was handling it so well because I lived my entire life in uncertainty. Could be that I only really lived in the city for a few days so hearing about the town ripping itself apart didn't mean all that much. Whatever the reason I was the only one holding it together, other than Sio. Well, she may be falling apart but it's hard to tell she's always covered up and her accent did not help any. She's either falling apart or was perfectly fine. Shaking my head clear of the mystery that was Sio.

“We need to keep doing what we're doing,” I said. “If not before it's more important now we have a fallback location secured and fortified. I say we follow our current plan of action.”

“Ya, I agree,” said Lucille. “This sucks but we cant do anything for anyone in town. We need to keep searching, Stacy anything interesting on the drones?”

“Not really,” Stacy said shrugging. “I had one drone glitch sent back some weird data but other than that I haven't really seen any terrain that stands out.”

“Glitch?” Jimmy said frowning. “We spent top dollar on those drones they have been used in the field with over 50,000 hours of data collection. I’ve fixed built and repaired every one hundreds of times. We have never gotten a glitch on bad data.”

“I don't know what to tell you, the data made no sense.” We all look at Stacy who just shrugs.

“No sense how?” asked Jimmy. Stacy rolled her eyes and pulled out her laptop and brought up the data.

“Here,” she said. “The drone was flying 60 miles north of us when I lost the signal. The picture show in went into a cave so it makes sense I lost contact. That far out we start piggybacking on the only satellite we have on new Eden as low on the priority list as we are we don't have the best signal strength. The problem is the data shows that for 5 minutes the drone was over 800 miles away. Then it was back flying to home base for diagnostics. I haven't had a chance to look it over yet I was going to pull it apart tomorrow when I had some time”

“That’s a really odd glitch,” said Jimmy looking over the data. “The GPS on the drones shouldn't go wonky like that.”

“I don't know what to tell you, the glitch makes no sense, but I’ll know more after I pull it apart,” Stacy said taking her laptop back and closing it.

“What if it wasn't a glitch?” asked Sio and we all looked at her.

“What do you mean?” asked Jimmy.

“What if it did travel that far?” Sio said. “What if it was teleported like the gate, we know this world has had a gate to earth. Maybe there's another gate, but instead of a new world it's to another part of New Eden.”

“No,” said Stacy. Jimmy stared at her eyebrow cocked. “No!” Stacy shouted at Jimmy. “I wouldn't have missed something as big as another gate.” Jimmy just stared at her with a small smirk lifting his mustach. Stacy groaned and flung her arms.

“Fine, FINE! I'll look!” Stacy opened her laptop. “I'm sending a drone now active feed so we can see what's going on in real-time.”

“How long will it take?” I ask. Stacy spared me a glance.

“The drone I sent is one of our best. It will be at the cave in about 2 hours.”

“Ok,” I said walking to the door. “I have an idea for the food shortage we're going to be dealing with soon when the drone is close give me a shout.” Tompson jumped out of his chair and followed me. He didnt say anything as we walked, probably in his own head thinking of a reason to talk. I made a small ice bridge over the moat making our way a long distance into the tree line. After a while of back and forth searching, I found what I was after. A bush, but not just any bush a berry bush. The other day I found it just exploring I picked a few berries I was just going to force-feed them to a fish and see if the thing died but apparently that's not a good way to test for poison. Jimmy had a small kit, no idea what was in it. But he spent a few hours doing who knows what to the things and found that yes we can eat them. Which he promptly did, and that's why I had to find the bush again. Jimmy ate the berries and he ate the seeds. I plucked a few berries and walked a few feet away I pushed my finger into the soft ground. Tompson looking on clearly confused. I dropped a berry in the ground and covered it up. Then I flooded the berry with nature mana. Urging it to grow, to flourish, to produce. Tompson sucked a breath in through his teeth while stepping back and seeing a green sprout practically shoot out of the ground. In moments a large vibrant bush had grown practically sagging as its branches were covered in berries.

“Success,” I said plucking a few berries and eating them. “Food problem solved, well maybe,” I said shrugging.

“That’s amazing.” Tompson said taking a few berries for himself. “They’re good, can you do this with all plants? If so, were set on veggies, don’t know about fruits I think all that was imported might be hard to get seeds.”

“I think so.” I said eating a few more berries. “Come on lets pick a bunch for the team. I think they will be happy to have something not covered in salt.” We pick a load full we used our shirts to carry them all. Of course I forgot a bag, just in case my idea worked.

“Your mom ok Tompson?” I asked as we made our way back to camp. He took a deep breath and nodded. “Ya she's okay, she is a seamstress works from home most of the time.”

“That’s good.” I say happy the kid has some family. I was always alone it made it easy to go fight even knowing I could die. Thinking about it now I can’t say I agree with my thinking back then it was ‘If no one cares if your dead are you even alive to begin with.’ I force dark memories down refusing to acknowledge them. I lived a hard life, my pain was terrible and my existence was a blight. But I lived, maybe I didn't matter to anyone but I mattered and I refused to think otherwise no matter how insistent my fears whispered. We made it to the camp and unloaded the berries onto the table.

“Excellent!“ Sio said taking a berry and eating it. “So fresh, I must make jam.”

“Wait what?” I asked as she grabbed a large bowl from under the table and scooped the berries up.

“Weird,” said Tompson. I nodded in agreement. For the next half hour we talked catching up he finally finished his challenge. He figured out that when he was in shadows he could pull darkness into himself and stay invisible longer. It was impressive, to say the least. After a bit the team came in. Sio looked annoyed she was taken away from her Jam.

“Ok,” said Stacy “ the drone is about 30 feet away from where we lost the signal.” She placed the laptop on the table and we all watched as the drone entered a well-lit cave.

“I'm going to send it forward slow if anyone sees something let me know.” Stacy plugs in a little dual joystick and takes control of the drone. She moved it forward slowly, very slowly. Three minutes to go ten feet slow.

“Ok come on,” said Thompson. “Can we pick it up a bit?”

“Don't rush me.” Stacy said, but after seeing the looks we were giving her she sighed. “Fine!” The drone moved forward a few feet then the screen went blue. A big flashing SIGNAL LOST on the screen.

“I knew I should have gone Slow! we missed it” Stacy said giving Tompson the stink eye.

“Wait look,” Lucille said pointing to the screen. “It's reconnecting, we lost the local signal so it's connecting to the satellite.” The screen had a loading bar after a few seconds the screen flickered on. The drone came out on the side of a small hill covered in tall trees blanketing the area making it impossible to see all that far. The sun was starting to set so the already dim light from the dense foliage was disappearing fast.

“We found a gate,” whispered Lucille.

“We did,” said Jimmy. “Now we need to figure out if the area is worth checking out. Stacy see if you can get over the trees.” She flew the drone around dozens of branches slowly rising into the sky. Once the drone broke free all we see is trees and more trees. Stacy swung the drone around all we saw were more trees.

“There,” I said pointing to what looked like a relatively close mountain that looked tall but not impossible huge. “Can we get to the top of that and take a look before it gets too dark?”

“We can try,” she says with a shrug flying the drone at top speed. We waited in silence as the drone flew up the mountain.

“Will you look at that,” said Tompson. The top of the mountain dropped down back into itself a few hundred feet. Into a grassy valley about 3 miles wide, it even had a small pond.

“As interesting as that is,” said Lucille. “We’re burning daylight can you swing the drone around Stacy we need a good view before we bring it back.”

“Ya sure,” Stacy said bringing the drone around. We got a large view of the surrounding area when the drone started to drop into the valley.

“Why are you going down Stacy,” Jimmy asked.

“I'm not,” she said scooting closer to the laptop and looking at the drone's system.

“There's nothing wrong with the drone, it's just dropping,” she said to Jimmy. We watched as the drone moved faster into the small valley it looked like the drone made it about halfway across the valley before it stopped.

“I have control again,” Stacy said, “I think.” She stopped talking, and we stopped breathing. A monster filled the screen. It looked like a cross between an alligator and a comodo dragon, larger than any I had ever seen before easily three times the size of the monster that attacked us the other day. The monster was looking at the drone, studying it. The monster's eyes narrowed and the air vibrated angrily. Stacy sat up ramrod straight in her chair and started to shake.

“Get out” she whispered. “GET OUT!” she screamed convulsing. “IT’S IN MY HEAD! I CAN FEEL ITS EYES! IT’S IN MY HEAD!” blood started running down her ears and nose.

“Shut it off!” Yelled Jimmy, as he pulled Stacy away from the laptop, Lucille started typing trying to cut the feed.

“InTeReStInG,” a voice said, a voice filled with malice. The voice sounded like boulders grinding against one another. We all froze in shock and fear we looked at the screen as the monsters head moved closer to the drone

“I sEe YoU, My LiTtLe SnAcKs.” It started laughing if you could call the noise it made laughter. Lucille pressed enter on the laptop and the feed died. We stood petrified as the realization of what just happened set in.