“What do you make of it?” she asked, returning her attention to the glowing ball of light.

“It’s fascinating. It appears to be organic, with some sort of electrical current running around the shell.”

Saafi approached the sphere cautiously, his rifle pointed toward the blacktop. “What do you think is inside?”

“Don’t get too close,” Sophie warned.

Saafi craned his head to acknowledge her. “Relax . . .” he replied, pausing in midsentence as the exterior of the orb began to ripple. “What the—” he choked, stumbling backwards.

The surface pulsated, the solid blue glow fading into a translucent white. The sphere rippled again, the entire ball vibrating. Saafi took a guarded step forward, his rifle now pointed at the orb.

As he got closer a tremor ripped through it, shaking it violently. Saafi froze. “I think I can see something inside.” He moved another step closer and the sphere reacted again, the blue fading completely into white. “Yes, there is definitely something inside, and I think . . .” He paused to get a better look.

“What is it?” Emanuel asked, approaching it curiously.

The knot in Sophie’s stomach tightened. She knew whatever had happened to NTC and the people from the highway was probably related to the orbs. Nonetheless, she inched closer. She was a scientist, and far from a coward; she had to know what was inside.

Beneath the translucent white skin, there was a black entity. And it was moving. As the sphere stopped vibrating and the last hint of blue was gone, her heads-up display (HUD) glowed to life.

“Contact!” she yelled into the com. Whatever was inside had a heat signature—it was alive.

“Alexia, are you getting this feed?” Sophie asked over the com.

Short bursts of static broke out over the channel, but the AI did not respond.

“Shit. We must be out of range,” Emanuel said. “Or there might be some sort of interference.”

Sophie shrugged. “Just our luck. Guess we’re on our own.”

The three team members backed up simultaneously as the heat signature grew larger on their displays, Emanuel nearly tripping over his own feet.

“What the fuck is it?” he asked. “It looks almost like an egg,” he said, regaining his composure.

“I’m not sure what kind of eggs you’ve seen in the past, but unless dinosaurs have returned, this is no egg,” Saafi said sarcastically.

Emanuel moved his lips to respond but stopped. The black life-form inside was moving, curling out of its fetal position.

“Guys, it’s doing something,” Saafi said, pointing his rifle at the orb.

“Everyone back up,” Sophie commanded.

The entity continued to uncurl and moved closer to the skin of the sphere. As it got bigger, Sophie could see that whatever it was it had limbs. They were struggling to move through the substance filling the orb.

Emanuel craned his neck and surveyed the rest of the highway. There were dozens more orbs, all still glowing blue in the distance.

“Guys, I don’t know if you noticed, but the other orbs are still blue. Which means we did something to activate this one,” he said, a tremor present in his normally smooth voice.