(This story contains violence, gore, and foul language. Reader discresion is advised.)

It was a group of five: Private Investigator Billy McCarney, the one who created and led the group. He was also the boss and mentor to his assistant, Genna Bowsley, who wanted her chance to help in the field this time. Despite the boss-assistant relationship, it was a rare type where interactions were genuine and almost mutual, generally respectful but resulting in the butting of heads from time to time. Ned Boone found the ad Billy posted to hire someone with experience, which Ned had in spades from his career with the Army Rangers. Last but not least, were Jack and Marla Cartwright, a senior couple who piloted helicopters and only got involved at the request of Ned, thanks to his and Jack’s time in the services together.

McCarney and his group were getting paid to find the missing son of some old couple, who said they received an anonymous tip that he may had been spotted somewhere in the God forsaken desert. Billy promised to keep the clients and their target confidential as part of the agreement, so only he would know the most sensitive information until sharing amongst others was deemed necessary. It was why he specifically was sought out, why the price tag was so steep, and why the others in the group didn’t ask too many questions. They were told to each bring desert camping equipment and a weapon for chance encounters with wildlife, yet that was about it for any further details of the mission.

McCarney and crew were flying in a helicopter over the missing person’s last supposed sighting. At first, it felt like they were hitting turbulence, but then the noise hit them all. It was painful as it violently danced inside their heads, even when they ripped off their aviator headphones and covered their ears. No one was able to think or seemed to notice that the helicopter was spinning out of control, quickly heading towards the ground.

Everyone was alive after the crash landing; however, Jack was out cold with a bloody nose from banging his head against the flight control panel. The helicopter was out of commission, and yet appeared to still be in relatively good condition, which was strange. The way it landed should’ve killed everyone and left behind a fiery wreckage. Pure freak luck maybe?

The sun was already setting on account of them starting their search much later than they wanted to on that day. Ned scaled the nearest, highest point, and saw no signs of civilization or human presence anywhere beyond his position. He still set up an improvised early warning system around the campsite just in case. Genna gathered anything they could use to form a campfire for the coming night. Marla was tending to her unconscious husband as he was laying on top of his unfurled sleeping bag, while Billy was trying out his satellite phone. It was working, but there was some sort of interference that sounded like the noise they all heard back on the copter. Either way, there was nothing the group could do except decide what to do the next morning and keep a lookout for any possible help. Ned did shoot off an emergency flare into the sky when it became dark enough, but there were no significant signs of any possible response.

Late at night, everyone was asleep around the dying fire. Even Ned, who kept watch out of habit, dozed off when his age got the best of him. The sound of crickets was carried on a nice nocturnal breeze. The sudden silence wasn’t noticed, nor was the ceasing of the wind around the camp area. Everyone was too deep in their sleep to see random pebbles and small stones lifting off the ground, and then different equipment around the site.

Genna was the first to wake up. She opened her eyes when her dream of laying on a soft cloud on a warm, sunny day, faded away. She wanted to drink something before trying to fall back to sleep again, so she slowly collected her bearings in the darkness and attempted to wriggle out of her sleeping bag. Reaching out to touch dirt, she felt nothing. Genna became more alert and more alarmed, wondering why she didn’t feel the ground. Using what little light was left of the campfire, she sat up to look at the others of the group. Her eyes adjusted enough so that she could see everyone still sleeping, but where was the ground? The fire’s light seemed to be below them all. Genna looked downwards and came to the shocking realization that they were all floating at least a good four feet high in the air. She screamed in a panic, waking up the others. A second later, they all came crashing back down to Earth.

They all scrambled to their feet after hitting the dirt. They looked about themselves, wondering what happened. Ned readied his rifle.

“Jesus Christ! What the hell happened?” Ned urgently inquired while aiming his gun into the open, dark perimeter of the camp.

“We were floating!” Genna exclaimed.

“What? What you mean, ‘we were floating’?” Billy asked confused and still recovering from a daze.

“Exactly what it sounds like! We were literally floating! In the air!”

“What? What are you getting at?”

Ned was securing the edges of the camp while saying, “Bullshit!”

“It’s true, I swear!” Genna argued.

“Bullshit! Y’all fucking with me? Y’all are fucking with me!” Ned accused everyone around him while pointing a finger, likely to refrain from pointing his barrel instead.

“I swear!”

“Why would we be floating?” Billy interjected to deescalate tension and fish for reasonable answers. “How would that be possible? We must’ve just jolted ourselves awake.”

“At the same time?”

“I swear,” Ned started off this time keeping his grip on his gun with both hands, “if this is some prank –”

“I promise,” Genna said in a calmer voice to ease the situation, “this is not a prank. Look, I just woke up too.”

“Same here.” Billy coincided.

“Guys,” Marla said with increased urgent concern, “where’s my husband?”

They all turned to where Jack and his sleeping bag were last and saw an empty space. Ned hastily approached the spot and knelt to better investigate.

“Ned, I thought you said pumas weren’t active in this area anymore!” Billy said perturbed.

“They aren’t!” declared Ned. “Pumas weren’t responsible for this! There’re absolutely no tracks to indicate whether he was dragged off, carried off, or just got up and ran off.”

“W-The man couldn’t have disappeared into thin air!”

Suddenly, they heard the screams. A man’s screams.

“Oh God, Jack!”

Marla pulled a revolver from her backpack and began running towards the sounds.

“Hold on Jack honey, I’m coming!” she yelled.

“Marla, wait!” Ned called out, but she continued running out into the darkness as he flicked on the flashlight on his rifle and tried catching up.

Billy pulled two handguns with flashlight attachments, and a pair of handcuffs from his backpack. After tossing Genna one of the guns, they both disengaged the safeties, turned on their lights, and hurried after Marla and Ned.

They all followed the screams, which were still coming from the dark. Drawing closer to the source of the screaming, it grew quiet as it was gradually replaced by another more worrisome sound. Marla and Ned were the first to step into the clearing. They saw a man wearing a gas cylinder on his back. The sound of chopping fresh meat came from each blow of his machete, with each downward swing. Ned and Marla aimed their guns at the stranger.

“Stop what you’re doing! Now!” demanded Ned in a commanding voice.

The man stopped with one last blow.

“Hands off the weapon, and slowly turn around with your hands up!”

Leaving the machete embedded, he slowly raised his hands into the air and turned to face his would-be captors, just as Billy and Genna caught up to the two. The stranger was shirtless, had on dark pants held up by a belt, and wore fingerless gloves. On his face was a hosed gas mask that had the gas cylinder on his back feeding into it, making up an entire breathing apparatus system.

“Who are you? What were you just doing?” Marla interrogated as she slowly approached the silent man.

“Marla, what are you doing?” Keeping away from him!” yelled Billy, not only wanting everyone to carry out their next steps safely but knowing what was waiting for her would only bring her torment and complicate the situation further.

“Where’s Jack?” she continued, “Where’s my husband?”

She peered behind the stranger and saw Jack, butchered with the machete sticking out from the center. She hoped and prayed to herself the worst didn’t happen. Now, she couldn’t deny what she saw. She knew it was her husband. What sounded like a mix between anguish and anger left her lips, while Ned uttered a curse from his.

Billy called out to both, “Don’t shoot! Marla! Marla don’t shoot! That goes for you too, Ned!”

“He killed Jack!” Ned yelled back a wishful excuse to cancel out the order.

“He might be our guy!”

“Are you shitting me?” Marla asked Billy in enraged disbelief.

“Keep your guns trained on him. I’ve got the cuffs, just let me get close so I can put them on him.”

Billy then focused his attention back on the man. “Place your hands on the back of your head and lay face down on the ground!” he demanded.

“He killed my Jack! My husband!” she yelled before turning momentarily towards Ned, “Your friend!”

“We don’t have time for this!” Billy snapped before refocusing his attention towards the man once more.

“Tom!” he addressed the man, “Do as I said, lay face down and place your hands on the back of your head, now!”

Tom was a common name, but Genna felt that she heard that name not long ago. It’s now obviously connected to their current case, but there was something else about it. Maybe heard or read in passing?

“I’ll make this easier for all of us!” Marla erupted. “I’ll just shoot the bastard and you can do whatever you want with him then!”

“No!”

No one noticed the suspect’s middle finger flicking forward before a blur flew from behind him and struck Marla in the face. A moment of silence passed as everyone except for the stranger wondered what just happened. Marla turned around to ask the others in the group, but not a word came out of her mouth. The group stared at Marla in horror as a light shone on her, while she attempted to ask again with the machete embedded in her face.

Filled with the sudden need to take immediate action, Ned refocused and aimed his gun at the mysterious stranger, who made a quick grab and side-pulling motion at the air in front of him. Ned pulled the trigger and let off a burst of three rounds, but Marla floated into the bullets’ trajectory and caught them all with her limp body. The suspect then made a throwing motion, sending a rock and a curtain of sand sailing through the air. The rock struck Ned in the head knocking him down, while the sand created a small dust storm that obscured everyone else’s vision. The stranger turned around with both hands down and began making an exit. Another slight gesture brought the machete flying out of Marla and back into his possession. Still trying to recover from the rock’s impact, Ned tried refocusing his rifle and squeezed the trigger. The stranger walked behind a boulder as bullets ricocheted off its stony face. By the time the dust cloud began to settle, the suspect whose name was supposedly Tom was gone from sight.

Billy tried stopping Ned from pursuing but got a rifle butt to the gut for the attempt, knocking the wind out and causing Billy to fall to the ground. Ned ran after his target into the black of night, where his angry, manic yelling and gunshots could be heard ringing out from the darkness. Genna helped Billy to his feet, and they both began hurrying their way back to the camp.