A/n: ~By popular demand, this story will remain alive. There are still many kinks to work out in the plot I'm still starting to tread, but when it's gets going, you could be in for a ride you might like. This chapter is a doozy, to make up for a long overdue update. Dedications expressed to all of you who've given me the support and push to continue on with this idea. Happy scrolling!
Out Standing: Chapter 2
July 28, 2011
by: Her Head in the Clouds
"I'm telling you! Too much sun is bad for that boy! And you think he listens? …And WHO keeps telling him? Who? Mhmm, I know he don't think I'm playing and yet he-!"
Lex genuinely laughed for the fifth time in the past twenty minutes that she'd been on the phone with her cousin Ray. Rachel was her closest cousin (both geographically and sister-wise) who lived in Colorado. Having heard she just got back from another one of her national salsa dance competitions (and Ray having in turn heard Alexa had come back from her latest expedition in the Arctic), both cousins jumped at the chance to call one another, and Lex had managed to be the one to pick up the phone first.
"Ray, why is it that every time that I call you, you sound more and more like Thomas?"
"That ghetto stepbrother of mine in the Bronx? Don't even play me, Lexi! I can't have you ganging up on me too!" Her cousin wailed on the other end, but the amusement was still on her voice. Lex laughed again.
"What? You're running a mouth a mile!"
"Lexi…!" her cousin's voice bit back threateningly.
"Okay, okay. Sorry, hun." She smiled into the phone before repositioning herself on the couch in the living room to reach for the TV remote. "So when do I get to see you and Nate do a chimmy?"
Ray scoffed on the other end.
"Like you know what that even is. But dunno... how soon by July can you get a ticket for Aruba?"
When Lex found a seemingly good CSI: New York episode on, she brought back her full attention to her cousin.
"Aruba?"
"Mmhmmmm. A ballroom championship we're getting ready for. It's gonna be fun!" Rachel said in a singsong voice. Lex chuckled. "White sands, hot sun... shirtless men... You must be dying for some of that with all the snow jackets you've seen over the past few..." Her words drowned out a little as Lex was reminded of the whole expedition all over again.
Lex found herself picking at the lint on her old oversized college t-shirt. Rachel seemed adamant on her coming.
"So what d'you say, Lexi huh?"
Lex chuckled. Unbeknownst to her cousin, a sad smile graced her features.
"We'll see."
"Heh, good enough of answer I'll ever get from you."
"Hey! That's a quality response!"
"Whatever, girl. Anyway I'll call you back in a bit. Nate and I are gonna go meet Chelsea at the studio for a couple. Go eat something yeah?"
Lex laughed again. That was her cousin's final line to all their conversations.
"Yeah, yeah. Don't hurt your partner! And tell him I say hi."
"Love ya, Lexi." And with a click, the line went dead.
That conversation happened weeks ago, before Lex's dreams began.
She returned this evening with an old duffel bag full of sweaty gym clothes and her car keys. In her other arm, was a large wooden chest she'd purchased from a nearby department store. It was meant for sentimentals, she meant it for something else.
When Lex left all the ice, snow, Sebastian, and the other team members behind on Antarctica, she returned, sworn by government space/science agencies and affiliations that whatever had transpired between the mysterious discoveries of the ancient temple, and the even more mysterious miracle of her being the only survivor, would remain a secret that she would forever keep to her grave. She gratefully agreed and walked away from it, taking only with her the staff and strange marking on her face.
She sometimes considered if any other expedition on earth would be worth it or a terrible mistake, but she wasn't about to let a few traumatic events stop her from doing what she lived for... not even a few bad nightmares.
Sure she was stationed with another R&D company for September to lead on a new expedition in Peru, but it wasn't much anymore, compared to what she'd seen.
When it came to the apparent thought that it was already near midnight, Lex dragged herself out of her thoughts to eye the electric clock in the cable box beneath the TV.
It was 11:16.
And despite it being reasonably early for someone her age, with her athleticism, and her couple months off work until the expedition started, Lex found it was hard to keep her eyes fully open in the living room's light. She let them droop before blinking again. She shook her head and got up with a huff heading for the kitchen.
The small kitchen found little comfort from its owner. It was pristine with the preference of a monk, but she barely cooked in it and spent most of her time in the past few weeks since she'd came back, eating out or reheating frozen packages. She used to be so health-conscious, but now it suddenly didn't matter.
Reaching the cupboard beside the stove, Lex reached up silently to open the door and pulled out a bottle of a Tylenol pills. Then, she reached over the counter below and grabbed the kettle off its burner and pulled a nearby glass to her with her wrist.
"Please..." she mumbled to herself before she took a swig of cool boiled water. "Not tonight."
Then with an angry jerk, she threw the two pills down her throat and took another gulp of water.
When Lex finally got into bed after all her pre-bed routines were done, she didn't even look to her nightstand clock, shutting her eyes tightly as she got beneath the covers and prepared for sleep. She didn't dare look in the direction of her bedroom closet where the staff lay in its new place inside the wooden chest.
She knew what was coming once her body relaxed and her mind drifted off - the same dream about the Predator aliens, the solar system that wasn't her own, Scar's recovery…
What she wouldn't kill for an old dream, the kind where you didn't see anything, where you flew, or where you ended up with Robert from grad school kissing face in a disco party surrounded by friends.
She missed those dreams. She wished now even more than ever as her brain began to swim, so that she could dream about Aruba's beaches, and her cousin's ballroom competition, which she sadly decided not to attend...
The air was hot and musty, and she was impossibly afraid by how thin the oxygen suddenly felt around her as she followed Scar deeper into the confines of the ship. The whole dream had replayed like it did every night – right to the point when she was looking out of the ship window and into the sickening colours of their solar system - and now she was even further into the dream following her once brief and now continuing acquaintance as he led her to a new place on the ship.
Lex wouldn't call Scar a partner, companion, or friend just yet. Just because they raced Hell and back saving each other, didn't surmount to any undying gratitude or girl's space fantasy of having a relationship with a powerful alien. Lex was just that mature, or just too old for make-believe.
The interstellar ship's rooms beyond the main hangar where she slept were, ironically, what many space junkies and movie directors had perceived alien ships to be. Granted, the colour scheme was on the much darker and much more gritty side, and the metal slates created for walls and hallways, but it made her feel like she was walking within a cathedral.
Lex couldn't deny that every light, clank of Scar's boots, or fleck of chrome in the high light fixtures had her feeling that at any moment, she'd hear Spielberg's voice yell "And cut!"
The hallway was looming with ferocity; she knew that if she had never set eyes on these aliens before, Lex would still know how dangerous they were just from looking at how their ship dripped with power. The hard heads of the alien prey that had been in the pyramid, and the same one Scar had fashioned into a shield for her, lined the high ceilings, in tens, all around. Even as she stared, Alexa shivered as if she could feel the undead eyes of their prizes staring down on her, still intent on attacking her in their second lives. Scar's long and heavy strides made her walk quicker than she'd hoped but she wasn't about to start a conversation. When he was ready, the way he was when he had shown her his true face after escaping the pyramid, he would say or do something himself. She didn't need to press him when he had new weapons or that new plasma cannon loaded on his shoulder.
When they'd finally reached the destination that Scar had been adamant on getting to, Lex found another much smaller, window at the end of another hanger, assuming it was another hangar bay. Beyond it, there in full view was a planet from the new solar system.
The chief hunter stood proudly at one side of the window, currently awaiting Scar's return with the human. He trilled behind his mandibles softly as Lex came up to stand beside both of them while the other Predators in the room remained focused at their posts of work, ignoring what was transpiring between the three.
Lex kept her mouth shut, again remembering that there was no need for her to say anything on account of obvious language barriers. The planet was another sight of worth beholding and throwing all words from her lips to the wind. The planet burned with the energy of a light so bright, its turquoise coloured oceans shone like neon lights in nightclubs. The mountain caps were grey and washed of any colour that it was almost like watching an old movie from the 1930's. Beyond those details, there was nothing else appealing. It was strange planet, somewhat oval-shaped and its yellowing clouds almost concealed the plant life below. From the colour of the largest forest, Alexa suspiciously wondered if she would able to breathe down on the planet below.
"I wonder...," she whispered out loud to herself, without actually meaning to. Scar must've picked up on her voice because he stepped up beside her and forcefully pushed her shoulder until she moved on her feet closer to the window.
Alexa gasped. What was he doing? If she had learned anything from Sebastian and his interesting knowledge on watching alien behaviour, was that Scar's way of silencing her in front of a superior like the chief hunter? What he just mad, or teasing her? When she found her balance again, Lex found she was closer to the window than the two and tried to step back. Scar roared behind her, and she felt a shiver run up her spine as she froze in fear. What was she supposed to be looking at...? Her heart pounded erratically. Her eyes flicked around but she wasn't getting the immediate gist of the situation.
Alexa suddenly found herself gasping softly and trying to find breath.
Despite her efforts to appear strong in front of the Predators, this was all too much for one woman. Hadn't she paid her dues when she lost her team back inside the Pyramid? Hadn't she proven herself worthy of living by being the only human ever possible to survive an alien hunting game? Couldn't they just take her back to where they had found her and let her find her own way back home in the ice? Lex could handle many things under pressure, but even stress can have its breaking point.
Air was harder to swallow. It suddenly became painful to choke in a breath of air. Lex tried looking around the room frantically, her brain ringing with alert. Were they doing something to the air supply in the room? Lex turned on her right foot and tried to find Scar in the sudden blur of images, her knees giving out when the burn in her lungs finally became too much. Lex fell on her hands as she tried to balance herself - she was too proud to go down on the ground and curl in.
'Remember those panic techniques! Goddamn Lex, relax!'
Fear and quicker unconsciousness only escalates when you rush into anxiety and run out your energy. Lex had to slow down her heartbeat and try to understand what was going on. She held her breath and closed her nostrils afraid of inhaling something dangerous. As she closed her eyes and tried to shut out the world around her, the air around her face quickly became hot.
Scar roared again, realising Lex's ability to understand their alien tongue had disappeared. He was calling out to her and commanding something in an angry tone. He kept yelling, but it only continued to add more to the ringing in her brain. She couldn't even look at him, lest she throw herself off balance for lack of air. The chief's warrior staff hit the ground beside her three times, signalling the start of something to which she was not sure.
The thump it made sent shockwaves through her, making her sick almost enough to throw up bile if she didn't get oxygen soon. When the sickness started to come over her, Lex clenched her teeth tightly and squeezed her eyes shut. She doubled over ready to empty her stomach, but when she went to hit the cold metal of the ship's floor, she met dry grass instead.
Lex rolled onto her side, her body writhing and her voice whining behind her closed lips for air. The air was so hot like the sun was beating down on her. Lex took a small peak and found that sun was beaming down on her. And so was Scar, the chief hunter, and several other Predators.
Her leg jutted out beneath her in a spasm, her heart pumped wildly as her head grew cloudy. Scar roared again and suddenly reached down to grab her. When he lifted her up onto her feet, Lex couldn't stand straight as she fidgeted and grabbed at her throat desperate for someone to understand. But Scar paid no attention as he pushed her forward toward the chief hunter. Lex was going to die and none of them knew, she hadn't even made it back home and they were going to subject her to a death in a world that wasn't even her own. How cruel and selfish could they be, after everything she had done and proven?
The chief hunter opened his mandibles and screeched a call so loud, Lex was more furious than astounded. It did nothing to help her situation. Despite what Scar had done to pull her up on her feet, she sank down again on her knees and wiggled around furiously. She couldn't react when he stepped in front of her and suddenly yanked the warrior staff he had given her out of her hands. When he walked away, all Lex could do was watch through watery eyes and a numbing sensation.
In her lasts bouts of conscious, he retracted the staff to its full length and rammed it down into the ground beside him – that was when Lex realised that he wasn't standing on the ground, but standing on a plateau of stone slab. All along it ran strange markings carved into its side, and bones littered the top, bones that didn't look like they belonged to any animal on earth. His voice rang through her head, as Lex finally felt her entire being pulled into the terrifying sensation of numbness.
"Second Test!" he roared to her as she watched the light the sun above them grow dim and dark like a cloud cover. But she knew it wasn't.
"Second Test!" he repeated. "Return the weapon! Megalith, megalith! Return and run it through!"
Lex's eyes rolled back and her grip slackened on herself.
"Return, do not bring shame!"
And when Lex opened her eyes and found herself in her bedroom, she gasped and gasped for air. Her heart was on fire and her body was sticky with cold sweat.
The weapon she had placed in the box was humming loudly, its energy pulsating from inside her closet, but she couldn't stop the unbearable sensation to cry and sobbed into her pillow. The dream was over but the nightmarish feeling still remained.
~It's all still a little rocky but be patient! Also, I'm aware that the Yautja have their own alien language with words for 'Hard-Meats' and words like 'ooman', but I'm not going to use them since that requires more research than I want to do on a fanfiction that's meant to be a fun experiment. Also, it's all being seen from Lex's perspective and it's how she interprets the whole situation. ;) I'll return with the next chapter in some time - I've got other fics to give my attention to. But until I return, thanks for reading!
Much love, Abby~