Where was it coming from? There wasn’t a person around.
Folded slightly inward from the surprise hit, Frank’s sprang outward and his back arched when something struck him in the kidney.
Then another hit. Another.
Something to the back of his knees folded Frank and sent him crashing to the ground.
His hands slammed hard to the dirt, when another hit upwardly hit him in the jaw so hard his huge body flipped backwards.
It was there on the ground that he got his bearing for a split second.
The trees above his head blurred within his bloody vision and he heard it. A footstep. Crunching the hard ground.
Frank zipped a look. It was close. A boot perhaps.
But nothing was in his scope.
Another step, and out of instinct, Frank rolled over and watched as seemingly nothing crashed down to the empty ground causing dirt and leaves to upwardly spray.
Grunting a ‘fuck’, Frank rolled to a stand a few feet from a tree. He had to rely on his ears and gut instead of his sight.
He could hear movement. Feel it.
Then he saw something. He couldn’t peg what it was. A blur of nothing. Almost as if it was a blur in a picture. It moved.
After a look up, Frank jumped, grabbed on to a branch and brought it down with him. Breaking off enough to hold in front for protection...
He swiped his hand under his nose, then held the branch outward.
“Come on,” he beckoned. “Come on.”
Crunch.
Frank swung.
A grunt. He felt the branch hit something.
Perimeter in his visual scope, Frank knew he was fast enough to get there.
Taking a breath, he charged forward like a bullet. The fence was live, and it was his only chance to get into the safety of Beginnings to escape whatever it was out there.
Frank didn’t fear much, he didn’t fear what was out there with him. He just did have a clue on how to beat something he couldn’t see.
Top speed, unmatchable, Frank neared the fence. Just about there, he slammed the branch into the ground, and using it as his lift, he pole vaulted over the perimeter fence.
He landed on his feet, dropped back, but caught himself in enough time to hear the fence charge off.
Sparks flew, zapped, smoke emerged and mixed with horrendous screams of pain.
Within seconds, the empty electrocution became the burning carcass of a man.
“Fuck me,” Frank whispered out. “Dan down the gate. Be read to up it on my call.”
He listened for the sounds of the perimeter going down and then Frank walked to the body. It was attached to the other side of the fence. The man tried to climb it. Thoughts that a demented invisible man had descended on Beginnings dissipated when Frank saw what he believed to be the reason for the invisibility.
He didn’t know how and had never seen it before. But as the flames singed, remnants of the man appeared as his ultimate camouflage outfit burned from his body.
His entire body. Except for his hand which never made it to the fence. It was extended outward. Frank walked through the gate quickly, ordered it up, and knocked the body from the metal
On the ground the charred body still smoldered, and Frank reached down to the unburned hand. A hand that appeared to be missing, but upon closer examination, Frank saw the edge of a glove.
The second Frank snatched it from the assailant, the glove turned silver.
With that in hand, and orders for the gate to be downed once more, Frank entered into Beginnings with evidence of a new type of enemy.
NEXT: AND THEN … FAREWELL
Faulted Lines: Beginnings Series Book 21 Page 42