The door on the first-floor slammed shut, snapping the two men out of their conversation.

"What just happened?" a trace of Turner's former self emerging through the pain.

"I don't know... yet." Cooper worked the computers, swearing under his breath. "How the hell did we miss that?" as he worked, separate screens coming to life with the views of the first floor of the house, the action that had taken place in the woods and fugitives from the woods.

Turner watched the events that had occurred at the gully with astonishment. They had been sitting at the console watching the feed from Marie's camera but had seen none of this happen.

"Damn it," Cooper leaned back from the computer and pushed his hands into his hair, itching his scalp. "We got missing time again. About five minutes."

"Son of a bitch," Turner stood abruptly. He wavered, the room spinning and his sight narrowing to a small of circle of light. Cooper reached out and held his superior's arm and waited for the fainting spell to pass.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Gulping air, Turner recovered with the fire in his eyes burning. "We must call this off. How the hell could we know actual aliens were going to crash the party?"

"It may be too late for that," Cooper pointed to one of the computer screens.

Outside the house, a small globe of light was nearing the camera set on the roof. It circled the camera, vanishing from sight for a few seconds, then returning to the view where it stopped and seemed to study the device.

The computer screen grew bright, the men holding their hands in front of their faces to ward off the painful light, then died, only a blank screen remaining.

Cooper quickly shifted to the view from another exterior camera and the screen winked to life with another, or the same, globe hanging in front of it.

"Long range." Maybe the cameras in the trees surrounding the house were still functional.

The view on the screen changed. "My God," Cooper grasped the table again.

The house crawled with dozens of the lights weaving their way across its surfaces, searching for a way into the shelter. Occasionally, a light would flash, burning itself out and destroying another exterior camera.

They watched the screen transfixed by the dancing lights, Turner understanding they had come too far to escape now. The only question was if they would come out of the experience alive.

"Put your weapon on." In a bleak voice, Turner ordered.