AFTER SOME REREADING, I HAVE DECIDED TO REWRITE PARTS OF THIS IN HOPES TO MAKE IT BETTER. FAIR WARNING, I THINK IM IM GOING TO TAKE DOWN THE OTHER CHAPTERS FOR SOME FURTHER EDITING AND REWRITING. THAT BEING SAID, HERE IS THE NEW CHAPTER 1 AND I SINCERELY HOPE YOU ALL STILL LIKE IT OR LOVE IT BETTER THAN THE LAST. THAT BEING SAID, ENJOY!
CHAPTER 1
"SHIT!" She screamed out as she felt the rubble crush her leg into a numbness. Peering over her gear she tried to assess the amount of debris that lay upon her leg.
"Gotta get out of this" she breathed as she pulled her leg and let out a deafening scream of agony. "God dammit..." She whimpered to herself as she searched for her radio.
"This is... Carson , I'm trapped in a collapsed building and need assistance." She voiced with a cry to the radio which replied with static. There was no signal in here and she wondered if her team had even noticed her disappear in that dust. Probably not.
She was in the desert of Afghanistan, assigned to an infantry team fighting a pointless war. They were searching this building, having Intel of a leader of terrorists that was supposed to be here. apparently, they had come across a pack of xenos that they had captured and set loose in various villages. It had happened so fast when the floor began to Crack and every one was rushed out to safety. Except her. She was the slower one that had been caught in the collapse having fallen through one floor, hit her head and passed out not even knowing that a peace of concrete had fallen on one leg and now threatened to take her life. she was...trapped.
"Hello... CAN ANYONE HEAR ME!?" She cried out.
The shuffling of rock and concrete took her attention and she grasped her gun and peered down the scope. It was so dark in the shadows that night vision was barely enough to see. All she had was a small flashlight and some glow sticks. Taking on of the rods, she cracked it and watched it illuminate her surroundings. There was rubble everywhere and she was relieved that one piece had missed her head. when no one answered she returned to her leg giving another pull as her head fell back and she kicked the slab with her free foot saying, "fuck fuck FUCK!"
a shuffling sound came again and she stopped and spoke again with a shaking voice,"Who's there? State you name and condition!" No reply came again except a shallow growl. "Answer me!" She ordered. It was ominous and sounded more like a lion. Lions didn't live in this forsaken place though. No. This was bigger though, and less animal like. She squinted her eyes to try and see better but all she got was shadows.
"You should be more concerned about yourself human." A deep and less than human voice came from the shadows.
Carson felt her stomach turn over at the sinister voice and she turned her flashlight on and pointed it in the direction of the voice. "What are you?" She questioned in shock as the light crossed the large alien form. It was massive, standing at what looked like 8 feet with a shoulder width of 3 feet almost. It was wearing fishnet and minimal armor, versus her as she was covered in a bulletproof vest and layers of protective clothing. upon further observation she could see its arm had been cut and dripped with a fluorescent liquid. she found it hard to believe that it was blood, even though it oozed from his flesh.
"That does not concern you. You should focus on that leg of yours." She glanced to the rubbed on her left leg and whimpered some as she tried shifting it once more. no luck.
"I'm aware of my condition. But I order you tell me who and what you are!" She demanded and positioned the sights of her rifle on him once more. god only knew if he would try killing her.
the creature looked towards her and growled before saying, "you can put that gun down. i have no reason to kill you given your condition. nature will take care of that in time."
she clenched her teeth, fighting the urge to lower her weapon but she soon gave in knowing it wouldn't be right to kill him for not hurting her. she looked away and pointed her flashlight to her leg and noticed the blood slowly flowing from under the mass of rubble. Though she knew, somehow, that she would have to do it, she cowered at the thought of possibly having to amputate her own leg. "You humans are so pathetic." He said in a hushed voice as he paced towards the woman with a slight limp in his step.
"Stay away from me!" She ordered but found herself becoming unable to breath and her her hand traveled from her gun to her chest. He continued his march and kneeled beside the human and cut down the middle of her vest, relieving the pressure on her lungs. She sat up and continued gasping for air. "Why did you do that? I told to stay away!" she coughed before removing the now pointless vest
"You couldn't breathe. That weight on your chest was pressure on your lungs." He adduced as he turned away and walked back to his place in the shadows.
He was right. " Fuck, I need to get my leg out of this." She spoke to herself looking for a form of leverage to lift the concrete slab. There was nothing and she considered wedging the barrel of her gun underneath but upon further observation she could see that the slab weighed to much.
.
The male looked towards her struggle and spoke, "you won't get out of that unless you are willing to lose that leg."
She thought for a moment and once again cowered at the thought, "fuck that. Just... Have to lift this." She replied attempting to lift the slab from her position. "Damn that's heavy." She laid back and stared up towards the tons of rubble above her. "Fuck my life..."
"There isn't any way to lift it." He voiced again, matter-of-factly, as he inspected the condition of his weapons. When he came across one serrated blade, he eyed it closely and picked it up as his eyes traveled to her. looking at her, he could see the determination in her feeble attempts to get free. she wasn't ready to die, that much he could see and he could hear an annoying voice in his head that told him to help her. as much as he struggled to ignore it, he couldn't. standing he began walking towards her again, ducking to avoid debris as he did.
"What are you doing?" She questioned as the male returned with the blade. carson began to panic as his intentions made themselves clear to her.
"Freeing you before infection sets in." the alien voiced and his hand gripped the hilt tighter.
"No! I'm fine ok. I'm not letting you amputate my leg!" She retorted and her hand traveled to her pistol that sat on her hip. "stay away from me and let me figure this out myself."
a low annoyed growl formed in his chest."If you don't, the infection will spread and kill you. i was going to help you,But suit yourself." He replied staring the girl in the eye from 8 feet above. "you humans are foolish."
The girl just stared back accepting his insult, knowing it was true in a sense. She turned her head away from him and didn't bother replying. she had been told before that her decision to join the army was a foolish one, one that her parents were against up until the point she graduated boot. her hand fell from the gun and and she returned to her leg thinking of the best way to get out.
The male kneeled and placed the blade next to the girl."In case you decide to do it yourself." He voiced looking to her leg before returning to the shadows to continue watching her.
Carson lay there using whatever she had as a makeshift pillow. Her heart pounded in her chest as her leg throbbed. What was under the rubble had virtually no feeling, it was numb. And what was out from under the concrete, was pain filled, bring the girl to tears at some points. It was agonizing. Thoughts and pictures appeared in her mind of the amputation she required and she found that she could almost feel the pain. The thoughts made it impossible to think positive and would make it impossible to sleep. She looked over to the blade and eyed it carefully. It was razor sharp she could tell, and the serrated part would make it easy to saw through bone. There she was, looking at a knife and contemplating self mutilation.
The male watched her quietly, knowing what she was thinking. Yet he couldn't help but admit that the woman was attractive, with her short red brown hair and cream colored skin.
his voice came quietly yet sounded sympathetic,"You are scared of the pain."
"Leave me alone. I'm fine." She lied throwing the blade back towards him. the truth was that she was not fine and she knew it yet she refused his pity and only wanted to fight this. Silently to herself she prayed to her god to save her, but only silence was returned. "...what did I do to deserve this..." she wondered as she looked at the pool of blood that trailed from beneath the concrete.
The night was long, and agonizing. Carson found herself exhausted yet unable to sleep; not even wanting to sleep. The only thing to keep her awake was conversation with the stranger that sat in the shadows. It was weird talking to him, for she had no idea who or what he was and what he would want to talk about.
"...my question still stands. who are you?" She said hesitantly expecting him to ignore her.
"Halkrath. My species is called Yautja." he answered as if he was fighting not to tell her. his whole purpose in hiding from the humans was so they wouldn't know about him. flat out telling one completely violated his stealthiness.
carson continued to look at him, trying to grasp the information until she opened her mouth once more."Where do you come from?" She questioned again. She was curious about his origins and how he ended up here with her.
He let out a long sigh, "a great distance." halkrath said as if she should have known from the start.
"...oh. I'm from Texas. Grew up in Fort Worth." She chuckled to herself as she looked at the mass of muscle that lingered in the shadows some feet away from her. "my family were against me joining the army at first. dad thought it was stupid for a woman to fight for her country, and mom was just worried. it wasn't until i graduated boot camp that they actually praised me and told me how brave i was. i guess they believed that i wouldn't make it…..given my situation now, i think they may have been right."
halkrath huffed before saying, "why are you telling me this?"
the question caught her by surprise and she looked away a second before replying. "i guess since we are stuck down here with no way out, i wanted someone to know that i never gave up no matter how many times i was told how foolish i was. hell, i'm probably going to die anyway." she gave a small chuckle at the end as if to lighten the mood.
halkrath gave her a look as if to say she was weird. "you are probably the most crazy human i've ever seen."
the girl laughed again but winced as the motions brought pain to her leg once more. "and you're not very talkative given that we are both in the same boat here." she said after taking a deep calming breath.
"I'm not. Especially to humans." He replied scornfully, as he adjusted a piece of his armor.
"What's wrong with humans?" She wondered and managed to prop herself up on one elbow. God her leg hurt with every move she made.
"Like I said before, they are foolish AND have no sense of honor." She nodded a little and accepted his answer. She watched the news, she knew of the scum that walked this planet. It was one of her reasons to join the army. To protect those in need of help.
"Okay...well then this must be hard for you; being trapped under tons of rock with a human." She replied as she traced her fingers in the dirt.
"...just go to sleep or something, little girl." He retorted.
Or something, Carson found herself turned away from him and playing tic tac toe with herself in the dirt. He clearly didn't want anything to do with her and she gave him that as she ignored his existence for the rest of the night. The male calmly watched her from a few feet away. It was only a few minutes before the girl grew tired enough to doze off into a soundless slumber.
Halkrath paced towards her and pressed one large finger to the underside of her chin, checking her pulse. Her heart beat had began beating faster and stronger. Changing his vision, he began to see the toll her crushed leg was taking on her body. Nerve impulses indicated mass throbbing and he could tell that she was in intense pain.
The male looked towards her crushed leg and wondered if he could do it in one cut. More than likely; but the female was sure to wake up screaming in agony. He kneeled beside her, admiring her looks and combed his fingers through her dirt filled hair. He watched her shift and whimper as she tugged her leg. Her breaths were rapid and she was sweating bullets. His indicators told him she was dehydrated but he had nothing for her. A low sigh escaped him as he felt more pity for the helpless human that lay there before him. How was she so strong to ignore the pain and sleep?
This human was unlike the others that he had hunted and it surprised him to see a female dressed for battle. she was so strong and he could bring himself to just ignore her. There was something about her that drew him closer to her, something that urged him to keep a careful eye on her. he couldn't decide what it was though, but he sensed his conscience telling him not to leave her for dead. looking at her, he could see that she had a fiery spirit that kept her fighting for survival. it was to that very spirit that he found himself fascinated and attracted to. he had never witnessed such a thing. in the event of failure in a mission,his people would merely accept death and die to protect the people and their honor. they wouldn't run. but this human was eager to fight death, never giving up. thinking on it now, why hadn't he set the self destruct on his wrist computer? looking to the female, he couldn't help but believe that it was her fight that kept him from killing them both. she was fighting so hard that it would be a pointless feat to just end it. then again, there was no point in him killing himself for he had completed his intended mission of killing the kainde amedha that lived in this building, and also a stupid human that tried to challenge him.
halkrath gave a sigh and took a seat against a wall of rubble just a few feet away from the girl, closer than before, and continued watching her until his eyes fell closed.