Ross laid the weapons across the rooftop facing west. Each loaded gun had the safety catch off and an extra three clips lying next to it. The .50 Tach sniper rifle, with a 5.5-22x56 infrared scope, sat on a tripod; its silenced barrel jutted from the building. The GPS showed Savannah on the move toward him at an incredible speed.

The sun dipped below the horizon. Its multicolored hue blasted up from the Pacific Ocean like blood spatter from a rainbow's slashed throat. Ross lined up the scope of the rifle with the direction of the blip on the iPhone. He set the night sights on and took aim into the distance.

A streak of yellow slurred between two trees about five clicks north by northwest. He clicked the dial to three clicks, just about three-hundred yards from his position. A short clearing between two farmhouses laid to his right. If she stayed at the same speed and direction she'd come into the clearing in about 15 seconds. His finger steadied on the trigger. His chest heaved as he breathed deep and slowly let it out.

Savannah made a hard left in the clearing. Ross shot several times from left to right. He aimed low as he only wanted her wounded. The shots sounded like someone clapping underwater.

The dosed tracer rounds zipped toward their target. He'd have done anything for a spotter at that moment.

Savannah slowed, not losing much momentum, turned and headed straight for him. This time he caught a brief glimpse of the shape of a young woman. Once more, he fired the sniper rifle in her general direction but she zigzagged and avoided every shot. She leaped onto a convenience store, then bounced from building to building one leg at a time, using them like stilts.

The rifle clicked empty. Ross rolled to his right and picked up the 9MM Uzi. Bullets blanketed the rooftops. Hail of lead and serum rained across the small town. If her pattern kept, she'd be landing on the Philomath's only gas station in a matter of seconds.

Ross scooted back to the sniper rifle, reloaded, aimed at the nearest gas pump, and squeezed the trigger. A small fire started at one of the pumps and spread quickly through the others. As Savannah landed on the roof above the gas tanks, they exploded.

He turned away from the flash. When he looked back, the explosion had decimated the small store and entire gas station. Heat blanketed his face. Plumes of black smoke and red-hot flames shot hundreds of feet into the air.

"Holy shit. Thank God the town is evacuated."

He scanned the area with the infrared scope, searching for Savannah.

"You missed," a soft female voice said from behind him.

"You've gotta be fucking kidding me." Ross depressed the trigger of the Uzi, whipped around and sprayed bullets across the fire station's roof. Some of the bullets had to have hit their target.

Savannah dropped under the onslaught and slithered forward. Before Ross could aim down, she popped up in front of him and snatched the weapon. With her right hand, she tossed the Uzi over the side of the building. Her left hand grasped him around the throat. Her fingernails extended. A flame of pain shot through his collar.

He grunted. "Kill me if you're going to."

A snarl ripped from her and she bore her teeth. "Why would you risk your life like this?"

Ross gagged. "To save ..." He coughed. "... Teagan."

"What about her? Who is she to you."

A rush of heat washed up his face. Her hand clenched tighter around his neck, the bladed fingers sunk a bit deeper until he could barely take a breath. He sipped in air. "She's everyone."

"Everyone?"

"The entire ... human ... race."

The intensity in her eyes softened. Her grip loosened, claws retracted and she lowered him until he felt the roof once again under his feet.

"The girl you saved before." It was a statement, not a question.

"She's family?" she asked.

Ross slumped to the ground holding his neck and wondering which weapon he could get to quickest.

Savannah crawled on all fours toward him. She'd grown into a young woman of about twenty and blossomed in all the right places. Awestruck, she slinked up to him.

"You're on this building by yourself to save humanity because of the girl with one of us in her belly?"

Ross grit his teeth. "Yes."

"I'm supposed to have one in mine." She lifted the small, dirt-covered tank top and rubbed her stomach from right to left, where her bellybutton should have been.

The motion gave Ross a sick feeling. His stomach churned inside.

"You're not pregnant, are you?"

She looked up. "No. But I should be. I've taken all the necessary steps."

Ross didn't want to think about her in that way.

She looked up from her belly and over Ross's shoulder.

"That's why she's coming."

"Who's coming?" Ross's eyes flashed left and right, searching for whatever the hell Savannah was talking about.

Sorrow fell across her face and shone in her eyes. "She's supposed to be the first." She pulled her shirt back over her abdomen.

"The first of what?" Ross asked. They'd ended up on the wrong side of the station's roof. His myriad of weapons lay dormant next to the .50 Tach.

"I'm not sure." Savannah sighed. "She would have been strong, a leader amongst a race of followers."

Ross wanted to keep her talking. The longer they talked, the closer he might be to getting out of there alive.

"How do you know your baby would have been a girl?" With his right shirtsleeve, he patted at the trickles of blood on his neck.

Gonna be a hell of a bruise in the morning.

"They'll all be female."

"Why would they all be girls?"

"I'm not sure." She turned away and stared at the empty sky.

"Do you know what that is?"

"No. Is it a blooming flower in space?"

His nerves had calmed.

It's just another conversation, Ross.

A wet spot on the flank of her shirt caught his eye. One of his tracer rounds with the serum in it had penetrated the skin just under her left arm. He hadn't seen it before. She'd positioned herself between him and the weapons. Though he'd emptied one clip of the Uzi at her, another sat on the ground next to it. He'd never be quick enough. Not with her speed and agility. He needed to keep his conversation going until a moment presented itself.

"That's the North Star. It's a burning planet millions of miles from Earth." He didn't want to overwhelm her with the details such as Polaris, Hydrogen, or Helium.

"Would you like to know more about them?" His arm jerked from a sudden pain in his right elbow.

The movement must have startled her because her eyes left the ponderings of the universe and settled on him. They began to darken from the corners in as if an invisible artist decided to fill her eyes with a black magic marker.

"I guess that's a no." He forced himself to smile.

Frantic.

Desperate.

Ross considered all possibilities for an out. Could he roll back and get to the rifle before she strikes?

Maybe?

If he anticipated her lunge he might be able to slide under her. But he needed to stall. "So, what now? You gonna tear my heart out and eat it?"

Savannah flashed a sinister smile which settled into a flatness he hadn't seen from her. A face he might put on when interrogating a prisoner. Maybe it was her kill face?

"I regret to inform you that the answer, sadly, is no. I won't kill you. You're free to leave if you can get through the males surrounding us at this very moment.

"I'm not a threat to you anymore." A ruse to throw her off-guard.

"I wouldn't say that. You've already injured me." She touched her wound. "There's a strange tingle in my feet and hands."

"Shit." Ross looked at the blossom of blood covering her shirt and watched as it ran under her skirt and down the side of her leg.

"What's happening to me." She staggered and plopped to the ground beside the puddle of blood.

"I think you're bleeding to death."

"How do I stop it?"

"I can help. But you have to help me in return."

"How?" she asked.

"By telling your males not to eat me. Yeah. That'd be a great start."

Ross didn't know if she'd agree. It really didn't matter either way. He'd failed his mission. She wasn't dead or pregnant. Still, he needed to get back to his girls. Savannah would have to agree.

The alternate, however, meant death to them both.

Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion.

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