"Heritage"
Prologue:
Trent High School, Outskirts of Sarasota, FL
AD 2030
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Knox Ryker sits in his desk like a good upstanding citizen watching as his Algebra teacher sits in her desk in the corner of the classroom.
Wake up idiot.
He locks eyes with the teacher and there is a certain mutual understanding between them, he continues to calculate the problem laid out on the tablet in front of him, the last on his cumulative exam.
Pay attention.
He finishes the problem within a minute of starting it and hands it to the welcoming teacher at the front of the classroom.
Ohhh you're screwed now.
But it reality it didn't go that way. The bell rings and the 15 year old wakes up from his snooze. 2 and a half problems are done out of 20. Everyone stands up, hands in their tests, Knox is the last to stand.
Hesitantly walks to front of class. Hands in paper. Teacher gives reptilian look.
"Looks like its off-planet work for you after all Ryker, pity" Knox looks down walking away.
That's right, my name is Knox Ryker. Don't ask. Its a stupid name I know, blame my late parents. All my life I've known that my only way of surviving would be to stay one step ahead of our ever changing world. Ever since the first signs of alien life were discovered in a cave deep in the depths of Mars the Second Space Age had been on a roll and was rapidly changing the way we lived our everyday life. This, is the story of how the world...and me for that matter was changed.
Chapter I: The School Bully and An Unwanted Visitor
"I always had a repulsive need to be something more than human" ~ David Bowie
I walk out of my 5th Hour class and hang a left walking to my locker at the far side of my large high school. I fiddle the lock for the tri numerical unlock code and that's when I see it.
A poster encouraging any teenager over the age of 16 to join the Colonial Marines, a small fighting force designed to protect the colonies on mars from any foreign alien threat.
I don't know why I didn't notice it before, not like it was subtle. The poster displayed a few marines saluting off into the distance while an x was spray painted over the head of a xenomorph, a species that the first astronauts colonizing Mars had found there, and an aggressive one at that.
Suddenly the stench of cheap spray cologne and sweat whiffs past my nose and I turn to see the school 'bully' Xander, one of his friends behind him strutting up to my locker smirking.
"Aw, look at that, little Fort Knox wants to be a CM!" Xander smirks. "Heh, hey everyone y-you hear that?! Knox thinks he's got what it takes to be a Marine!" His friend says in a whiny voice.
"Look just leave me alone Xander I'm not up for it today." I say turning back to my locker opening it slightly.
"Oh yeah? And what're you gonna do about it puny little Fort Knox," He shoves me. "You're such a whore like your mother, sucking facehugger dick," he says.
How the hell did he know that. I never told anyone that. I try desperately to push back the repressed memories of my mothers death. She'd been a scientist in some third party organization that studied xenomorphs.
She was pregnant with me when she was attacked by a facehugger that had somehow gotten into our house (likely someone planted a xeno egg, I'd always suspected that but the results never came up conclusive) and fell into a coma. My father found her unconscious after coming home late that night.
Two days later I was born while she was still in the hospital. She had the privilege of seeing me for five minutes before she started convulsing. The chestburster came out and killed her shortly afterwards.
I ball my fists. "I bet he has his own as a little fuck toy at home since he can't get any girls with his penci-" Xander is cut off by the door of my locker slammed in his face. He steps back momentarily shocked but that was all I needed.
I pop a left jab into his nose and then punch him in the jaw with my right. The growing crowd stood shocked, and just walked away as Xander laid limp on the floor, blood trailing from his nose.
I grabbed the rest of my books and carried on my way. I drop my books off in the Musical History room and make my way to the nearest bathroom afterwards, washing my face off in the outdated sinks, examining my face in the mirror solemnly.
Damn, did I always look this grim? A certain look in my eye would give anyone else the impression that I was depressed...which I was. I sigh and then walk out of the bathroom and that's when I heard it. The bloodcurdling scream. The crack and splatter and then the unsettling hiss afterwards.
I look out into the cafeteria outside of the bathroom squinting. Suddenly a wave of seniors ran into the lunchroom from their side of the school shrieking and running for their lives.
Suddenly a senior that rode my bus home grabbed my arm. "Come on kid what are you blind?!"and in an instant I am running from something I can't see. One of the seniors friends was running next to him as frantic as everyone else.
"How the hell did that thing get into the school?" He says followed by an answer of "I don't know there's a xeno testing facility down the road aways it might have escaped there."
And that's when I started hearing whispers in my head. It started with a hissing, and then parts of a sentence in English, and then more hissing in between
'Ssssoooo pathetic,'
More garbled hissing
'Run insects.'
Even more hissing
And then a tail goes through the chest of the senior that was running next to me. Suddenly my legs give out and I fall to the ground facing behind me as I slide into a wall gasping, trying to find my breath as I see the largest xenomorph ever rip the spine from the second seniors body.
Blood splatters on my grey hoodie as the xenomorph finally sees me and creeps towards me on all fours. Its mouth was bent in the cruelest smirk I'd ever seen.
The xeno opens its mouth as if to hiss but instead I hear English spoken in a males voice.
'Whatsss thisss hm?'
It tilts its head.
"H-How are you speaking English?" I didn't ask for mercy, I didn't beg not to get killed, instead I asked how it knew English.
The xeno examines me for the longest time but doesn't show me any harm. I was growing more uncomfortable with its close proximity to my face by the second.
'Give me one reason I shouldn't kill you.'
I hear a hiss of a voice and I look directly at the xeno. Suddenly an intense flash shines out of the window above my head directly on the xeno.
I hear the sounds of helicopter blades outside and while the xenomorph is distracted I grab an overturned stool next to me and lob it at its head.
I get up as fast as I can and start sprinting down the hallway to the right, unluckily for me that was exactly when the helicopter started spraying bullets at the damn thing.
It was brief since they'd seen me a split second afterward but glass shatters over me and a bullet grazes my ribcage.
I stagger to my knees but awkwardly get back up as I limp run for the stairs hearing the xenomorph angrily growl behind me.
I manage to go down most of the stairs holding my bleeding side but stumble down the rest. I look up at the top of the stairwell seeing the xeno hop onto the top railing hissing at me.
I didn't stop to listen to what it said as I get back up running down into the main floor of the school.
I hear more gunfire, making it about halfway down the hallway before the xeno catches up with me and uses its long tail to trip me, I fall and the side of my head receives most of the blow.
I hear the faint sounds of gunshots and an eerie ringing as a dark shadow darts past me, the last recognition of consciousness as black washes over my vision.
To Be Continued.