Chapter 22

                                    

                                          
"Ok so this is a horrible idea! Crazy! Haha sorry not crazy asinine." Tanya reiterated over and over as I slipped the final wire into place, I looked up at her and see the 'are we really doing this?' Question in her eyes.
"We don't have a choice, even if they've sent another unit they will still have to exit the jeep and trek at least 2km to get to us. Those creatures are still out there and the next group have no idea about their mimicking abilities. We just have to make it to the jeep ok!" I said as I placed the metal cover back over wires and picked up my rejiggered projector. 
"I know we don't have a choice but this has got to be the craziest plan you've ever come up with. Including the time you thought it'd be a good idea to go hiking up that mountain, during a blizzard." Tanya continued to complain as she fastened her pack, securing it tightly to her shoulders and waist.
"You're forgetting the part where we were already up there and a member of our team got caught in the storm." I reminded her as I grabbed the final piece of tech to complete this crazy plan.
"Hey never said it wasn't necessary, just that it was crazy." She peaked her head out of the tent, to see if the creature was still there, I assume based on her rigid shoulders never shifting back down, it still was.
"Do you think it will really fall for it, I mean this creature seems very smart, I'm not sure it'll work." Tanya signed to me as she came back over and knelt in front of me. We decided it was probably better to sign as it seemed the creature had a better understanding of spoken word than we were comfortable with.
"I'm hoping so! But it's all we've got and those projectors are probably about 20 minutes from running out of battery, with no sun to recharge them and no way of changing out for new ones without taking down the shield we're kinda out of options." I signed back, adjusting my pack to sit snuggly against my back and moving towards the back of the tent, I felt Tanya's hand on my shoulder turning me back to face her. I watched as her hands moved in quick succession, making the desperation of her words perfectly clear.
"I know that! But these creatures hunt in storms like this, which means their tracking skills must be off the charts. Putting our clothes on the robot probes and hoping they'll follow might not be the best part of this plan." She finished dropping her hands with a huff. I nodded my head acknowledging her issues with the plan and let the almost visible steam coming out of her ears clear before letting her in on the part of the plan she hadn't picked up on yet.
"That's not exactly the extent of the plan!" I signed back grabbing my blade from the side of my thigh.
"Oh god! You're not thinking, what I think you're thinking are you?" She said out loud as I just nodded my head watch the tiniest bit of hope that I wasn't as crazy as she thought was I, leave her ocean blue eyes.
"Ok well that might actually work! But we'll have to work them into a frenzy before sending the robots off or it might not take." She signed, letting out a sigh of exhaustion or defeat it's a little hard to tell. She held out her left hand and wait for the blade to slice through it, she let out a grunt at the pain. 
I could feel a dull throbbing in my left hand as if I had sliced through my own but I had yet to do so. Before I had a chance to slice mine a bang rang through the forest and another and another, at first I thought it was more thunder but then I looked out of the tent and realised it was actually the creature banging, clawing at the fence, its eyes wild with hunger. Guess it was working.
I went back in and nodded at Tanya to get ready as I sliced my own hand, I let out my own grunt of pain as Tanya wiped blood onto our clothes, spreading it evenly before attaching it to her robot. 
I went back out and squeezed my hand into a fist, wincing at the self inflicted pain, held it out in front of me and watched as the creature became more crazed by the second. I continued to squeeze my hand, releasing blood onto the ground and walked around the tent, leaving my scent everywhere, so to confuse the creatures as I watched a couple of others pop up from the clearing. 
So this was going to be interesting. I made sure to only squeeze every couple of feet or  so as not to lose too much blood. Walking back inside the tent I saw Tanya putting the finishing touches of our clothes to both of the robots and motioned me over to her.