He paused in the gap of the tree line. They might have stumbled upon a prepper, which could be extremely dangerous. Many of his friends had retired from the Marines and bought a plot of land off the grid. They had rigged their houses with booby-traps to prepare for what they believed were the end days. But that didn’t explain the signal. How would a prepper have access to an encrypted NTC emergency channel?

He sprinted to the side of the house and slumped against the metal siding. His eyes darted back and forth, checking the area before he advanced to the entrance.

“Don’t fucking move, soldier!” a voice shouted from above him.

Overton froze, his finger clenching the trigger of his pulse rifle.

“I’m a friendly,” he said, opting to leave his team out of the equation.

“That’s what the last guy said. You can find his head on a post about a quarter mile down the road.”

“I’m Sergeant Ash Overton, United States Marine Corps First Recon Battalion. I’m not here to hurt you or take what you have. Our AI picked up a distress signal from this location.”

Silence once again filled the night, but Overton didn’t move.

“You’re a long way from Camp Pendleton, Marine.”

“Recon mission, sir. Got caught in the midst of something much bigger.”

“No fucking shit. Did you find any civvies down there?”

“Yes, sir. One. A little girl,” he said, hoping the man would be empathetic.

“How old?”

Overton scowled.

What do I look like, a fucking doctor?

“She’s no older than five, sir.”

“And I’m guessing she’s with your squad. How many total?”

“Two Marines and an NTC scientist, plus the girl, sir.”

“An NTC scientist, you say? You sure?”

The question struck him as odd, but he answered, “Damned sure.”

Another pause. The hum of silence filled Overton’s helmet. He cringed, the knot in his stomach getting worse. A combination of smoking and drinking had more than likely caused another ulcer.

He waited for a response.

“Don’t make me regret this, Sergeant. Gather your team and meet me on the south side of my house in five.”

Overton slowly took his finger off the trigger and swung the rifle over his shoulder, not daring to look up at the rooftop, where he guessed the man had been camped out. He turned and took off in a sprint back to his team. For some reason he had a bad feeling about this guy, but at this point, he knew they had no other choice but to trust him.