Chapter 11

• AERA
• "This is definitely the point where the anomaly first made contact," I said as I was surveying the scene.
• We discovered trees that had been singed. Some of the trees had been angled oddly, while others had been flattened to the ground. The soil beneath our feet was marked by darkened patches. What vegetation used to be there was now ash.
• Seth glanced at me, his eyes sparkling with a mixture of excitement and curiosity. "What do you think we’ll uncover here?"
• I clicked my tongue thoughtfully, my grip tightening around the handle of my blade. "Whatever it is," I replied, "it’s going to be enormous." I figured the distance was at least half a mile wide. I was going to find out how far the trail ran.
• For miles we walked. Only when the sun had passed the midpoint had we reached the point of impact. I could still feel the heat from the burning metal. Barely visible, I spotted the faded letters SS Babylon.
• "That, if I had to guess, is Emperor Arion's property." Seth took a step closer as he looked at the prints on the ground.
• I snorted with disdain. "Too bad this had not landed on his house."
• Seth chuckled softly as he nodded his head in agreement. "Do you think there are any survivors?"
• I looked down. Studying the imprints. "What do you know about the SS Babylon?"
• "Nothing."
• "Same." I looked at what was left of the vessel. "But. Something had gotten off that thing." I studied the continuous grooves in the soil. "Serpent. Male." My fingers brushed against the loose soil. "He was in a hurry." I looked in the direction the marks had gone.
• "Not all of them were adults." Seth had crouched to the ground as I did. "Offspring. And there are a lot of them," his fingers wiggled in the air as he began to count. "At least 19."
• "We need to get back to the elders." I stood to my height. "If I am correct. And this time I would love someone to prove me wrong," I was thinking about the information I had read that Dad left for me. "We have a much larger problem."
• "What?"
• I looked at the dozens of youths' prints, then the adults'. Serpions. " I said the word.
• Seth had stood frozen where he was. "Why did you say that as you did? Your tone. It was off."
• I sighed as I lowered my head. "My dad. He had located my mother in one of these places. Just like the SS Babylon. Scientists take what isn't theirs. Then they. My mother. They have taken the DNA of a scorpion and black serpent, joining them together. Then they took females, from who knows where. Bringing them to one of these places to birth offsprings."
• Seth's lips moved without a word being spoken.
• "From my dad's notes. Arion was trying to create the perfect bioweapon. No one could do a thing because the evidence was always destroyed before the elders could do anything." I turned my head from the tree line to the metal. "Arion and those who came before him. They all have been working on this." I balled my hands into fists.
• "Now there is evidence, the elders can do something about this." Seth had finally found his voice.
• "Maybe. But first we need to get to the elders. If the Serpion's are as soulless as my dad described. Arion is the least of our worries. The Serpions don't know any better. They will go for the basic necessities first. Water. Food. Then shelter. After that they will insert themselves into the ecosystem. This could possibly off balance the ecosystem."
• "Are they that aggressive?"
• I looked at the imprints in the soil, then at Seth. "I don't know. I do know one thing. My dad called the Serpions complicated. I believe this until otherwise proven wrong. The Serpions are as much a victim as the females who had been forcibly removed from their families."
• "Do we consider the aggressors as victims?"
• "We are all aggressors," I began moving my feet back the way we had arrived. "It just depends on the level of aggression we choose to be on."