Closure - Page 11

Tyler was puzzled by her surroundings, finding herself outside the hospital entrance on a stretcher. On one hand Alex was hugging her like she would never let go (which is nice), her boss was beside her with a stern look on his face (Hi, there, she mouthed), and there was an FBI agent (?) nearby walking away, talking urgently into his headpiece.

The agent was trying to be discreet, but the urgency of his voice carried a few words of his conversation.

“...cave… …hostile… …contain…”

Tyler, still shaking away the fog of her deep sleep, didn’t think too much about the agent as Alex and her boss, Wilson, garnered her more immediate attention. Especially on how is she going to explain all that had happened.

* * *

Back in the cave, the strike team lowered their guns as the alien dog (wolf?) lay twitching on the sandy floor, it’s blood leaking out from the many gunshot wounds it received. Beside it lay their main target, but she seemed to have died long before they arrived.

From the intel given by the police, they’ve searched the general area until they stumbled upon the cave. Entering cautiously, they’re stunned to find the alien on the floor in a pool of her own blood. Then, the alien dog had leap out from the depths of the cave, targeting the intruders. It was no match against 3 automatic rifles head-on.

Approaching the two bodies warily, the strike leader prodded them with his gun, but they no longer moved. As the radio officer reported back, the other two members scanned the surroundings, checking for anymore hostiles.

The sandy floor was a mess, but they could make out a set of bloody footprints, starting from the alien corpse, traveling deeper into the cave. The tracks ended not long after, but the team decided not to search further, as the caves soon winds and branches, potentially leading into a maze.

Either way, their main target was already in hand, the alien woman, dead or alive.

* * *

Commissioner Wilson stayed outside as Alex brought Tyler inside for further treatment, keeping an eye on the FBI agent. The man in question had been talking animatedly into his headpiece, his expressions going from concerned to annoyed as he received new commands from HQ. Grumbling, the agent went back onto his truck, signaling the driver to move out.

Wilson caught his door before they drove off, asking him, “What the hell was that!?”

The agent stared back, then replied, through gritted teeth, “Apologies, Commissioner, it seems that there was a mix-up. I won’t be bothering you or your men any longer. Now, if you excuse us, we have new orders to carry out.”

With that, the truck started to move away. Wilson was definitely unsatisfied with the answer, but he had no cause to hold or arrest them.

“What have you gotten yourself into, Tyler?”, he wondered.

Artist's Note:

And with that, we've reached the end of this chapter. For a chapter named "Closure", there are still things unresolved, but then those plot-points are materials for future chapters.

In fact, we've decided to mark this as the end of Volume One, since it's a good closing point with Cynaith exiting the stage.

Next week we'll post a Vol 1 cover page for the comic, just to properly cap it off.