Leaving the building took little time. With six people to watch in six different directions, we could move quickly and smoothly to the front entrance. We paused just inside the doorway, scanning for any outside movement before we left the building.

“Chavez, take point,” Carter said.

“I’ll take your three o’clock,” I said, stepping next to the broad-shouldered man. “Anderson can watch our six.”

Carter nodded. “T-Bag, take our right flank. Mason, our left. I’ll push the cart and scan between the two sides. If anything comes at us, stick to your zone. If someone needs help, we call.” It was standard operating procedure, and everyone nodded assent to the orders.

All plans set, we moved out. I stayed a half-step behind Chavez, the muzzle of my MP5 pointed down but ready to bring up at any moment. The parking lot was mostly empty in front of the station, with fewer than twenty vehicles occupying the nearly one hundred parking spots.

“What if we siphon gas from the tanks?” T-Bag asked. “We could create some handy explosives.”

“We focus on our destination,” Carter said. “Once we have a better position or find more survivors, we can focus on collecting resources.”

“We also don’t have any containers,” Andy said from the rear. “And we would be loading the cart down even more.”

Mostly in silence, we made our way north. As we walked down the center of the road, we passed a junkyard on our right, a menagerie of cars in various degrees of rust. I kept a sharp eye on my side of the road, despite my concern that the other side contained the bigger threat. There, a row of palm trees lined the road, and just beyond that stood the edge of a small forest. Thinking of the spiders and scorpion, I couldn’t help but wonder what other monsters were hiding there.

I didn’t have to wait long before a rifle fired a shot. “Contact!” T-Bag shouted, though obviously trying not to laugh. “About a dozen squirrels heading our way.”

I whipped my head around to see the incoming charge across the no-man's-land. With a brief glimpse, I could understand T-Bag’s reaction. I counted about ten squirrels bounding our way. Each squirrel was about the size of a house cat, and it was the tail that tugged at the laughter in my chest. While the tail of a squirrel was usually about as long as the body, the tails on these had grown out of proportion, extending almost two feet in billowing glory. I spotted a dead one on the ground unmoving, before I snapped my eyes back to my side of the road.

“Anderson and Chavez, help T-Bag take them out.” Rifles fired three-round bursts in response, and I heard the rap of bullets on concrete.

“They’re fast,” Chavez said.

“Prep for hand-to-hand,” Carter shouted.

I drew Chewy’s combat knife from my side and turned back to the incoming charge, rifle forgotten in its sling. Another squirrel was already down, and I watched Anderson take down two more. T-Bag hit one of his own as well. Chavez, however, was misjudging their bounding run and couldn’t hit anything.

I tapped him on the shoulder and yelled, “Switch!” He dropped the muzzle of his rifle before taking a step back, so I could take his place. I had a second before the rodents closed the distance. This last moment gave me a good look at their eyes. Horrifyingly, they held the same determination and intelligence as what I’d seen in the final gaze of Captain Ares.

The remaining six rodents closed on us, and I bellowed, matching the ferocity of the rabid animals with a fury of my own. Inexplicably, all six of them came for me. Vicious three-inch claws flew at my legs and arms, and teeth meant for cracking nuts closed on my much more fragile skin.

My yell turned into a scream, even as I plunged a knife into one of the animals. I kicked at something tearing at my leg, and the knife flew out of my hands as I yanked two more squirrels off my shoulders. I felt other hands beating at them too, striking me just as much. When the haze of red finally cleared, I was kneeling on the neck of the last squirrel. It still struggled underneath me, teeth bared and claws flailing. My own hot blood streamed from a dozen wounds, but I managed to retrieve the big combat knife. With a pained effort, I plunged it into the creature’s chest, between the ribs, then twisted the blade.

I froze when I saw the gray-green stone sitting there in the middle of the squirrel’s ribcage.

“What is that?” Andy said from somewhere behind me.

Without answering, I reached out and touched the stone, which disappeared as soon as I did. I caught the scents of grass, pine, and walnut as the energy passed into me.

“Shit, man, what just happened?” Andy asked.

In silent exhaustion, I reached for the next body, plunged my knife in, twisted, and thrust my hand inside. I heard exclamations of surprise and disgust. Someone vomited nearby as I moved to the next body.

“Ward, stop,” Carter ordered.

I ignored her as I repeated the action, again and again.

“C’mon Ward.” Anderson grabbed me by the arm, trying to pull me away. I shrugged him off and felt around in the slippery mess until my fingers brushed against another gem.

When the energy rushed into me, it joined the flow that was already building in my chest until I was full to bursting. I fell onto my back, my chest pounding in pain. I felt my jaw lock and teeth grind as I held in the scream until something exploded inside me. The overwhelming pressure spread out like fire into my veins, forcing its way into muscles, and settling into my bones. The energy surged into my head, pressure mounting as an unseen will wormed its way into my mind. My skin tightened, and my legs strengthened. Finally, my chest gave one last pulse of energy. Power shot out from me in an invisible wave and knocked everyone to the ground.

“Whiskey Tango Foxtrot,” I choked out.

Andy laughed. “I was thinking the same thing.”

I sat up and looked at the surrounding carnage. Every member of my party was on the ground, and the janitor’s cart lay on its side, a dozen M4s spread over the pavement. The bleeding bodies of half a dozen squirrels lay scattered, three others mutilated by my hand.

My head was still spinning, and I could swear I saw colors swimming before my eyes. Squeezing them shut with my palms did not stop colorful patterns of light swirling across my vision. When my head tilted up, the colors became dominated by white, and tinged with patches of blue. I looked down, and I saw a swirling vortex of colors overlapping. A dominating shade of green seemed to pulse, shifting slowly, but always in the same pattern. It held an undercurrent of gray, which lay stable as a base for two other dancing colors. Threading back and forth in the tapestry was a swiftly moving and changing blue, which seemed to dance around the stable silver that spread through the gray in branches toward me.

I received my next shock when I moved my head around me, eyes still closed. Five distinct humanoid shapes danced with color. The people were mostly blue surrounded by gray, overlapping lines with two pockets of white in their chests. The white pockets contracted and expanded, some of it leaving through a vertical tube, but some smaller pieces moved into the blue circulating through everything. Within that same blue, dancing with the white, flecks of silver shone. They were so small they would be imperceptible except for the bright light they gave off, like distant stars. Underneath all this, as if it fused with the colors, settled a crimson red. It flowed with the other colors, somehow only enhancing the differences.

I opened my eyes and looked at the figure closest to me, a man who was both a friend and mentor for the last several years. Andy seemed unconcerned with the colors present in this new world, and he got to his feet. The swirling moved to a background sense of what I saw with my own eyes. It was like adding a drop of water to scotch, deepening the flavor and underscoring the tones present. The swirling image of energy did not replace what I normally saw. Instead, it added to it.

“Can you stand?” He offered his hand to me, and I took it. My own hand was vibrant with color, but… more, somehow. Brighter than Andy’s, my hand showed a deeper blue, a more solid gray, brighter silver, cleaner white, and a more vibrant red.

“You going to help me, or do you expect me to pull you up myself, Bear?” Andy asked.

I blinked up at him and stood. Then I looked down at myself, glowing just as much as my hand.

“Something wrong, Lieutenant?” Carter asked. I looked at her and noted the swirling patterns, a subtle difference to what I could see in Andy. “Lieutenant?”

“Sorry, Agent Carter.” I shook my head. “Must have hit my head when I went down.”

“You probably lost a bit of blood as well,” Carter said and turned away. “T-Bag, grab some water. We’ll take a quick break here.” Then she turned back to me. “Ward, I think you have some questions to answer.”

“Trust me,” I answered, “as much as I can tell you, I have more questions of my own.”

“Well, you could start with answering why you’re not bleeding anymore.”

“I have no idea.”