by Tobias Christopher, The Eurostar, T5 and LLance
"It's almost dawn," Danny Hearn said. "It's going to be awfully hot in an hour."
"We've got to keep going," Naecken replied. "If the sun doesn't fry us, those buzzards will."
M'xy looked off into the distance and saw a group of buzzards resting up. When the sun rose, they would as well.
"Couldn't you just run ahead and find out where we're headed?" Sonja Ljzavet asked Tobias Christopher.
"Possibly, but vibrating that van took a lot out of me," Tobias said. "It'll be another few hours before I'll be back to full speed. Plus, that water M'xy found is affecting my system."
"Then it's decided," Naecken said. "We keep moving. Maybe with some luck we'll be out of this desert by nightfall."
Mandelovia Security and Intelligence Agency headquarters:
Sitting at his desk, Colonel Nemo pressed a button activating a communication device and shouted into it, "Send out the Desert Worms!"
As the team struggled forward, Naecken tried to find a way to get water. He asked them to stop and rest for a while.
He sensed something moving underneath his feet. The motion seemed rythmic and regular. He decided to test his senses. Closing his eyes, he concentrated on the motion. It was water. He just knew it somehow. He could feel the softness, the texture of the liquid.
He reached down and started to dig, using his awesome strength like never before. In no time at all, he had managed to dig a trench deep enough for the water to be revealed.
"Great going, you devil!" shouted Danny, his thirst reaching never-before-imagined levels.
Sonja offered a makeup box she took from the van as a drinking cup.
Danny looked at Naecken and asked, "How did you do that?"
"I realized I could sense the density of the ground, the crystalline shapes of the rocks between us. I think I always could do it, but I never had a need to use those senses. And that's when I knew that water could easily be found using this ability."
For Naecken, that was a long sentence, so Marv Velo asked, "Are you feeling all right, Naecken? You look a bit dizzy, if you ask me."
"I'm not sure. I had a small headache a minute ago. I usually never have those, and now I realize how to use this connection to the ground. It's like I'm connected to the ground by some bond."
They drank and mumbled over Naecken's newfound ability. Then suddenly, a few yards ahead, a huge metal snake with rotating saws in its mouth hurled itself up out of a sand dune directly in front of them.
In Italy, a group of people consisting of a middle-aged man and woman, and a young boy and girl, pretending to be a family, stepped off a boat.
The little girl said, "He's closer now. We will find him soon."
Lance Lorenzo was the closest to the worm, and it dove straight at him. Unfortunately for the killer worm, the buzz saw teeth went right through the immaterial Lance.
"What the hell now?" Lance screamed. The others scattered.
Lance phased through the head of the metallic worm, trying to disrupt its circuits. Energy crackled around the worm's head, and it stopped... for maybe five seconds before it raised its head back up into the air and swayed back and forth, surveying its prey.
"Damn!" Velo blurted out. "It must have additional back-up circuitry running throughout its body!"
"We'd better make a run for it!" M'xy suggested.
Just then, another worm jumped up out of the sand to their right, then another to their left! A fourth popped up behind the group.
"We're surrounded by these monsters!" Lance screamed. "I'm open for any ideas, people!" Lance shouted as the four mechanical worms began inching their way toward the group.
No response from anyone. Everyone seemed to be frozen solid like deer caught in the glare of headlights. Lance started shaking. "I'm not getting eaten by some stupid robot worm!"
He flew up and through the first worm's head again. It stood paralyzed for a few seconds. As soon as its head swayed, Lance became immaterial through another section. The worm stopped again. Lance had found another set of circuits. Lance flew throughout the worm's metal body. It stopped and then twitched and then stopped again.
Suddenly, a puff of smoke belched from the worm's mouth. Lance flew to safety as the worm fell to the ground! Lance turned to see how his friends were doing.
Marv Velo was standing amid a pile of junk. He apparently had been successful in vibrating one of the worms to pieces using his gauntlets, but he was hurt. Lance ran to help Velo.
In the corner of his eye, he saw his remaining teammates evading the worms when they attacked, and Tobias Christopher struck from behind as it did. Things seemed to be at a standstill for the moment. Of course, the robotic worms were not going to tire! Somebody better think of something quick, thought Lance Lorenzo.
Naecken grabbed a worm by its tail and began swinging it like a club. Then he brought it down onto one of the other worms. A loud thump, and then he started to stuff the worm backward into the other worm's mouth. Both worms struggled to set themselves free from Naecken's grip, but to no avail.
Velo shouted, "Look out there, further ahead! Tanks... and helicopters. They've sent the entire bloody army after us!"