For two nights nothing happened and Janus was convinced that this was a dead end. Maybe little Megan was coming off a Froot Loops high and the mom was just being protective Janus thought. Space travel had always been her main interest. Shadow people and the paranormal had been more of Jonah's specialty. Director Oliver seems to have a very good reason for what he does, but it's hard to know sometimes...
It was the third night at 3:00 am and Janus wakes to a soft humming like a lullaby. It was faint at first and then slightly louder. Monica trying to put her kid back to sleep she surmises. The sound increases as if growing in her head and Janus does not recognize it as the mother's. Janus slides into her jeans and places her 9 millimeter into the back of them. She moves stealthily down the hallway expecting Jonah to be right behind her, but no one is there. Why isn't he here? She began to marvel because his hearing was above what a human's ever could be.
He had told her once that sound waves can be directed and condensed. In his experience in the paranormal, Jonah had believed that this is why only certain people could hear one thing while another cannot. Also, he had noted that the agency has such a device that could perform such a task and one of them is sitting on Director Oliver's desk. Janus's synthetic ears could clearly detect, as she got closer, that this might not be Monica. The door to little Megan's room is open and a dark figure of a woman is standing above her bed facing Janus waiting.
She turns on the lights and the figure is gone as if it was never there at all. I hate this shit! Janus thinks to herself. What the hell does this op have to do with extraterrestrial life? Megan sits up and looks as though she is in a trance, but before she can react, a scream from Monica fills the air like a banshee. While she runs down the hallway Janus yells out for Jonah, but nothing not even the presence of his rushing footsteps.
Monica's door is locked so Janus kicks it open with utter ease and finds the single mother paralyzed and significantly sinking into her mattress as three dark shadows loom above. A loud, buzzing sound fills the air and grows by the moment. She unloads her ammo on the silhouettes that are blacker than the night itself and nothing. Her eyes catch a glimpse of what they really are with the gun flashes. Again Janus flips on a light switch, but the radiance from the bulbs is unusually dim as if struggling to stay on. What the faint illumination does reveal answers her questions as to why she is on this mission. Three beings of extraterrestrial visage stand in front of her behind the bed in the faded, shadowy lit room.
They are not like any other aliens she has encountered. These almost seem demonic in appearance. Their heads are a bulbous, cranial shape throbbing and pulsing away. With black, beady, soulless pupils they stare into her's. Dark, oval markings surround those empty abysmal eyes. They have vulgarly thin bodies with blackened, grey skin and obsidian colored teeth jagged like razors. Janus senses begin to burn and she falls to one knee. The creature on the left has a small, silver device pointing towards her. Another wavy, translucent pulse is fired at her and Janus falls to the ground in a fetal position of sheer agony.
¨Jesus.¨ Monica whispers with all her strength and the cries, ¨Jesus!¨
The horrible fiends grimace in utter disgust at the mere sound of that name and then all three begin firing at Janus. I am A.I. for God's sake! How the hell can this be happening to me?! Her thoughts lament as every fiber is pierced by their weapons. Monica is sinking slowly into the bed inch by inch in complete paralysis. The buzzing sound intensifies greatly. The evil creatures are emotionless displaying neither fear or remorse. Janus internal systems pound her cybernetic brain with warnings of eminent failure. Falling to the ground her blurry vision sees Jonah's large, grey Vans enter the room.
A pulsing strobe light beats the monsters into disorientation. Jonah fires a multi-pronged taser at them and they fade into the darkness behind. Monica screams and vomits as Janus slowly rises.
"The girl, Jonah." Janus struggles to say as she reboots. "They're after Megan. It's a...it's a...distraction."
Jonah agrees by bolting out of the room and down the moonlit hallway. He finds an empty room and his fingers switch on the lights. Nothing but the stuffed animal she likes to sleep with. He jumps out the open window and vocally calls for the drones. There is no response so he opens the app on his phone. They've been disabled. Whatever presence is behind this is surely responsible of that he was certain.
A thick, dense forestry in front of him as the sound of wolves began to bellow in the background. In the distance there was a large wolf in a small clearing in front of him. It stared at him and Jonah gazed back. The creature stood up like a man would and vanishes into the woods. Jonah removed the cartridges from his 9mm and begins to load them with the silver tipped ammo that was inside his jacket'a pocket. A previous incident in the Yosemite forest made him sure to pack them.
It was no more than five minutes in when Jonah heard Janus scream out, "Jonah! I need some back up!"
Running to her voice he finds Janus surrounded by the upright wolves with little Meagan. In her hands two smoking guns and two silver Bowie knives in holsters on each side hip. Several of the nearly seven foot Beast's lay motionless on the ground. No doubt as a result of Janus' s deadly aim. Marveling at her sheer tenacity, speed, and recovery he also contemplates his next move. The monstrosities circled the two of them as they too begin to ponder their next move. Jonah fires a single shot in the air to get their attention and it does.
"Agent Jonah, agent Janus." A voice says blaring over their cell phones. "Operations is here."
"Run!" Jonah exclaims.
Janus removes the pins from two grenades, drops them to the ground, and races away with Megan over her right shoulder. The explosion obliterates two wolves and the legs off of another. The rest of the packs howls in both rage and remorse. Jonah opens fire with deadly accuracy planting his first and second shot between the eyes of two more beasts.
"We can't outrun them!" Janus says as she hands Megan to him. "Go! You know I can do this!"
"I'm coming right back! Jonah promises.
Reluctantly, he runs through the tall, giant trees of the forest as fast as he can. A single wolf attempts to hurdle past her to pursue them, but is mercilessly relieved of its legs courtesy of Janus's white hot, silver blades. The beast howls in both pain and rage. She ends his suffering by the removal of its head.
Another beast punishes her with a powerful blow to her face and sends her dense body hurtling through breaking several small trees behind her. Janus's large, silver Bowie knives remain at her sides for they are chained to steel bracelets on her wrists. Slowly, dazed she rises to her feet and spits the blood out of her mouth defiantly. Three wolf-monstrosities step out of the forest's shadows surrounding her.
Somehow they look different from on another in the moonlight. Their bodies are unmistakably like wolves standing upright like a human, but the faces have a hybrid of man and wolf. Some had nostrils instead of snouts while two had little hair in their heads. One's hands are of a man with large, black nails. Janus looks into their eyes and sees a man's not an animal. The creatures seem to notice her observation and pounce all at once. She laughs and Jonah can hear her as he makes it back to the clearing where backup is arriving. Janus can feel their immense weight and hot breath as two of wolves take a bite on each shoulder. Her back begins to burn with claws tearing at thick artificial flesh that was designed for great punishment, but only to a degree. Driving her blade through the heart of two of the creatures with utter ease, Janus laughs again.
¨I must go back for her.¨ Jonah tells a field agent as he hands over Meagan to him.
¨Sorry Sir, orders from Director Oliver are that units are to be sent in!¨ He tells Jonah. ¨You are to standby.
¨No.¨ Jonah says as he reloads his weapon.
A single werewolf steps out of the dense forest growling and staggering. It is clutching an open wound where its arm should be. Agents move in quickly and stun the beast with high-voltage rifles. Nets are fired at it from two drones as the the wolf falls. Then, slowly, covered in black blood, Janus walks out of the forest and into the clearing. One Bowie knife dangles at her left side while the other stays firmly in her right hand's grip glowing and smoldering in the moonlight. She laughs once more and falls to the ground missing her left hand and part of her right shoulder.
¨She lost another fucking hand!?¨ The voice of Director Oliver asks over the speakers in a few of the nearby hovering drones. ¨That damn thing cost me millions! Med-bot!