Red Skies- Book One [[ DRAFT ]]

Chapter Four

It took Cherry a moment for that to sink in. Her brain didn't really process the words at first, and she just stared at the screen. Rodney was still at his desk, uninterested, but he looked up at this. Hina put her hand on Cherry's shoulder.

"Uh..." Hina started, not knowing what to say.

"Keep scrolling, let's find out more about the experiment," Cherry said. Acker shrugged and kept scrolling. Hina looked at her.

"You're not... upset?" she asked. Cherry shook her head.

"Doesn't matter. Let's get on with it," she said. Acker was taking notes at his computer, so the crowd dispersed. Of course, Cherry was upset. But she didn't have time to be. Whatever went down at the experiment site, it was surely for a good reason... Right?

"Are we just going to ignore the fact that there are huge monsters roaming around out there?" Hina questioned. Rodney glanced up.

"Acker, you didn't mention anything about monsters," He said, glancing towards Acker.

"Keep in mind I originally intended to investigate this myself. I haven't forgotten about them, calm down,"

"Do you even hear yourself? Monsters! This is a huge factor, you should have brought it up earlier. I have plenty of weapons. You need to come to terms with the fact that we are a team," Rodney said.

"Yes, your weapons will come in handy. We'll need to capture one and study it-"

"On it," Rodney said, standing up, slinging a large bag over his shoulder, and walking out of the room briskly. Everyone stared after him.

"What was that about?" Wynn said, raising her eyebrows.

"He's a total nerd about studying creatures and whatnot. He'll probably get himself killed, though,"

"Wait, you're just going to let him die?" Cherry said. Acker didn't reply and continued clicking away at his desk. Cherry sighed.

⚫

After an hour or so, Acker stood up.

"Their base is in Nevada, we'll have to leave by tomorrow morning. Rodney most likely has a plane somewhere on his property, so we'll fly down there and try to get in. There's a chance-" They were interrupted by someone yelling down on the front lawn.

"Die, bastard!"

Everyone except for Acker ran over to the window. They walked over, uninterested. Rodney was standing over a huge hairy figure that appeared to be immobilized. It was covered in a sticky, blue substance that one could only assume was blood. Rodney was covered in it as well. He pressed a large gun against the side of the creature, pulled the trigger, and was thrown backward. Bits of the monster flew everywhere. Wynn covered Lacee's eyes, and she protested. Hina gagged and Cherry winced. Rodney looked up at them and waved them down. Everyone took the elevator and met him out front.

"Now, I wasn't able to take this one alive... And I won't be able to dissect it either. But it has blue blood! And appears to be some sort of large pig... with some other animals mixed in. Not anything that could have been born here though. I have plenty of these guns, though. Just a few shots to the neck should do the trick," Rodney said, wiping off the blue blood. Acker raised their eyebrows.

"Not terrible," Acker admitted. Rodney flicked some of the blood at them, getting it on their glasses. They clenched their jaw.

"You goddamn-" Acker started angrily, then sighing and starting again.

"You think you're funny don't you?"

"Actually I do," Rodney said with a sly smile.

"You really need to grow up. This is a serious matter and you're trying to make a joke out of it,"