Threshold shift

Chapter 15

Oh-kay, oh-wow! After the last chapter my email inbox kinda exploded. In a good way. I'm very happy you enjoyed yourselves so far. So here's the next chapter, which should have a warning: Blood. Violence. Velociraptors doing their thing. People dying in not a nice way because of it. You have been warned!

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The trespassers were ignorant of their presence.

Unawares of the dangers around them, the men and women, all armed to the teeth, were walking along the perimeter of the camp, wearing night-vision goggles. The goggles were pushed up on their heads as the approaching dusk bathed everything in shades and shadows. Trees, grass and rocks blended in together, making it hard to distinguish between landscape and living creatures. Birds, hidden within the leaves, could only be heard. Monkeys jumped along the branches, making them rustle.

The trespassers didn't pay them any attention. Now and then a screech from a bird or a monkey had them briefly look around, but they had been here long enough to ignore the sounds of nature by now.

They were too confident for their own good. Over-confident.

Blue ducked within the shrubbery, keeping completely still, frozen into a statue. She was perfectly camouflaged against the gray-green of the jungle. A snake moved slowly past her, unconcerned by the predator so close by. A lizard skittered over dead leaves and buried underneath them.

She wasn't interested in them one bit.

Her attention was on something ... someone else.

Blue's eyes tracked the man who walked past the bushes, his radio warbling as an update was requested.

"All silent here. Five out."

There was a squawk. The man looked up into the trees, then grimaced as a bird flew away into the approaching night.

"Fucking birds," he muttered to himself.

He shouldered his gun and dug around his pockets, then pulled out a sharp smelling package and proceeded to stuff some of the contents into his mouth, chewing.

Blue recognized the scent. Tobacco. Her alpha didn't use it, but she had smelled it on some of the troopers and one had even been caught by Carter, smoking it on the job. From her close connection to Owen she understood what it was, the smoking, the smell, the effects, but she found the smell disgusting.

This one, he smelled like stale tobacco underneath the sweat and food. Blue's lips pulled back from sharp teeth, like a gruesome smile. In addition there was the distinctive scent of alcohol and whiffs of his last meal. Spices and sauce, fried potatoes, meat.

Delta was close, sensed but not seen. Blue knew where her pack-sister was without having to look. It was a sense they all had of each other through the pack bond, just like they were all aware of their alpha, held inside the ship.

Echo and Charlie had moved around to the other side, choosing their targets, ready. There was an eagerness in the air, a cold determination. They were on the hunt, choosing their prey, choosing the targets to take out one by one, and ancient instinct dominated their minds. It was something no genetic manipulation would breed out of them.

They were apex hunters.

They would kill tonight.

Delta deliberately made a sound, a dry twig cracking under her toes. The man peered into the jungle, grumbling about something.

Blue moved like the proverbial shadow. Sleek, fast, barely heard, but the guard felt her. His Neanderthal brain clamored for him to see the danger he was in. Like many of his kind he didn't listen to the silent shivers, the way his hair stood on end, the dread rushing through him.