Overhang

When a CIA team disappears in the mountains of Afghanistan, Indigenous American CWO4 Vic Abbot and SFC Moses (Mo) Terrijo are retasked to lead a rescue mission to the sensitive border region adjoining Pakistan. Paired with a female CIA agent, they struggle to lead a dwindling team of Afghan soldiers against Taliban pursuers as they fight their way through a isolated valley to what seems to be the safety of an old adobe fortress under an overhang. There they find the sole survivor of the CIA team, who warns them of an unseen threat.
The supposed safety of the fortress looks more and more like a trap as sanity and lives unravel. Against that backdrop, Abbot and the CIA agent have to address a previous relationship and learn to work together to survive. Along with the frictions within the group, the diminishing number of survivors begin to understand the dangers they face only too late.
Time become fluid as the past bleeds into the present and they realize they are not alone -- ancient beings from the dawn of creation seethe and scheme. Even death is not a release from their torment, but only another level of pain and despair.
The final confrontation brings a shock as nothing and nobody are as they seem. There can be only one outcome as Abbot's life and past come full circle with the ancient wisdom of his people and a powerful symbol of three faiths combining to sustain him.

Cover photo: MesaVerde by Schatzi and Pickles
https://www.flickr.com/photos/schatzimansel/9610301575/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/