Everyone looked at each of them nervously, concerned.  Did Simon really just say that that alarm meant there was someone outside?  Everyone all had this same thought, it was in everyone's faces.  The feeling of shock in the air was palpable. 

"What do you mean there's someone outside?" Jim was the first to break the silence.

"Not necessarily, someone." Simon answered.  "I failed to mention the security system.  There are sensors on the outside to detect movement."

"What if it's just a leaf blowing in the wind?" Connor chimed in.

"What leaves?" Simon asked rhetorically.  "In case you've forgotten, the world is the victim of a nuclear holocaust.  I couldn't begin to imagine there being anything left out there.  Just endless radiated desert and ash."

At this response, Connor backed down.

"So what is it?" Jim asked, stepping closer to Simon and the computer.

"That's what I'm trying to figure out now." Simon spoke while pressing the screen.  "There aren't just movement sensors, there are security cameras out there as well.  These cameras can see just about any angle you could ask for."  Simon navigated to the security system cameras.  "I don't think they'll be much to see out there though."

Simon was right.  Upon loading the security cameras, there was nothing but orange haze over a desert.  Off in the distance fires could barely be seen burning by the familiar dance of flames emitting an ominous glow.

"How many cameras are out there?" Lydia asked.

"Not sure, I lost count after a thousand." Simon answered.

"Is this the camera that should be showing what moved out there?" asked Veronica.

"Yes, and no." Simon replied.

This made everyone more confused.

"Yes, and no." Jim repeated.  "What the hell does that mean?"

"It means that given the sheer number of cameras that are out there, there are various security grids that this... thing could be at.  So, I'm going to pull up a number of cameras simultaneously and project them on our big screen in front of us.  Selecting a fixed number of cameras in the warning sector could give us the view we're looking for."

Simon continued to work his magic and brought about thirty cameras on the big screen.  I was basically all more of the same.  Whatever was out there had a very easy time hiding.

"It could have been some kind of mutated wild animal.  Only mutation of genes would allow such a rapid potential evolution of a creature to be able to survive in this arid location.  If it was a wild animal, it may have noticed this shelter and simply came in for a closer look in a survival effort to find sustenance.  It isn't easy to survive in our new planetary existence."

"There!" shouted Lydia

Everyone tried to find the screen she was pointing to.

"Camera twenty-seven!" again shouted Lydia.

Everyone looked at camera twenty seven.  They all strained their eyes staring at this camera, unable to see what she was seeing.

"Where, what?" asked Connor.  "What do you see?"

"I don't know, I saw movement, or a shadow of some kind.  It was faint, but I saw it."

Even Simon was straining to see whatever it was that Lydia was seeing.

"Is it still there?" asked Veronica.

"I don't know. If I actually saw whatever it was that I saw, it isn't currently moving anymore." Lydia began to sound unsure of herself.

"There!" Shouted Jim this time.

Jim was pointing at camera six.  Everyone diverted their attention to camera six.  Again, everyone was straining to find any sign of an object or a person, or anything.

"I think I see it as well." Simon exclaimed, while using the computer to zoom in.

"What is it? what do you see, I still don't see anything." Connor said, frustration beginning to take hold.

"It's faint.  But it's there." Simon circled an area on the screen.

"I literally don't see anything." Connor spoke, a bit more agitated.

"There's some kind of dark shadow.  It's very vague but it's there.  It could be anything, but whatever it is, it doesn't look massive." Simon spoke, closely analyzing the image.

"What does 'not massive' mean? The size of a mouse, or a human?" asked Connor again.

"It's difficult to gauge scale, I have nothing else out there to compare it to." Simon answered.

Just as quickly as everyone had seen it, it disappeared.

"It's gone." Simon exclaimed.  "I don't understand.  It was there, then it wasn't."

"Could it have been some sort of optical illusion?" inquired Jim, struggling to grasp what happened.

"Perhaps, but I'm not entirely convinced." Simon stated, with mild concern in his voice.

They all stood there staring at the cameras, each one labeled on camera as to the number, everything else, just an ominous orange fog blanketing everything.  Veronica's hand gently and discreetly found Jim's.  Jim gently squeezed her hand in return.  He stepped forward and looked more closely.  The alarm sounded again.  Simon, looking very perplexed, tapped more on the computer screen.

"Whatever it is, it's in a different sector."  Simon, tapping rapidly, found more cameras. 

He pulled them on screen.  More of the same.  Orange fog.

"There's nothing there." Connor insisted.

"Don't be so sure." Jim said cautiously."

The alarm again went off.  The alarm seemed to be getting louder and louder every time it alerted them to a presence.  Simon again found the affected cameras, and pulled them up.  This time, there was no question of something on camera.  A dark mass was quite visible, but still shrouded on one of the cameras.  Everyone stood there in shock.

"What is that?" Jim asked nervously?

"It's just standing there, whatever it is." Lydia spoke, almost trembling with fear.

At this, Connor took her hand.  They weren't worried about Simon noticing as he was focused solely on analyzing the creature.  He tapped a couple of times and the camera zeroed in on it.  An analyzer circled the mass, at the top of the screen the word 'analyzing' was flashing.  The results came back.  'unknown'.

"That's impossible." Simon was now both worried, and intrigued.  "This analyzer software is programmed with every known living species on this planet."

"What about the unknown." Veronica asked.

Simon looked back only momentarily at Veronica before returning back to the camera footage.

"As much as I would love to tell you what a preposterous theory that is, a good literary hero of mine Sherlock Holmes would have to agree with you."

In that moment, the black mass disappeared.  It didn't seem to turn and leave, it simply disappeared.  The red flashing above them stopped, and the lights went back on in an instant.

They all stood there, not really reacting to much of anything.  They stood there in a state of shock.  They were all looking around, as if to make sure whatever that thing was hadn't gotten in.  The line between rational and irrational felt blurred in that moment.

"Well." Simon spoke and broke the silence.

Everyone else had a mild scare at his speaking.

"Sorry." Simon apologized.  "It appears that whatever that creature was, it's gone now."

"You know this, how?" Lydia asked

"I don't, but we all saw it vanish from sight.  So, I can only assume it's either gone, or undetectable.  The sensors reach approximately a hundred yards in any given direction.  It's no longer close.  We can only hope that whatever it was, didn't see anything that was worth-while to it.  However, we must be prepared for it to possibly return.  Hopefully next time we'll get a better look at it and determine what it is."

Everyone was still in various states of shock after having witnessed that.

"Who's hungry?" asked Simon before walking up to the food hall, leaving everyone else standing there as though nothing happened.

Jim, Connor, Lydia, and Veronica, all stood there just looking at each other.  They noticed each other holding a hand.

"Crap!" exclaimed Connor.  "Do you think he noticed us?"

"At this point, I am losing my ability to care if he knows about us.  That's gotta be the whole reason we're here right? Two men, two women." Jim spoke confidently.

"Fair point." replied Connor.

"What about the thing that was just outside?" Lydia kicked in mildly annoyed. "How about whatever that thing is that's outside? Like, should we talk about that?"

"I think I have to agree with Simon on this one."  Jim spoke to Lydia. "Until or if that thing comes back, we really only know one thing we can say for sure.  There's something, or someone out there."

"You don't really think it's a 'someone' do you.  What could have possibly survived out there, on the surface, in that orange fog?" Connor was quick to answer Jim.

"If it is a ‘someone’, the amount of radiation they've absorbed would be more than enough to make whatever humanity they had left, disappear entirely." Jim said with a realistic sense of pessimism.