'Kay, I know I left off with a rather large cliffhanger and that some people are impatient for this chapter. I won't mention any names *cough*RubyDracoGirl*cough*. Anyway, here it is, Chapter 5, less than 24 hours after the last chapter was posted. Enjoy! :D (Also, please ignore any typos you find. I try to patch them as best I can but for some reason the corrections never save.)
Ch. 5
Slink
We moved silently through the woods. I could feel Janine on my back, lying with her legs tucked up against her sides. She was ducked low, using my head as cover. I was still a bit confused as to why I trusted her so much. Thinking back, I remembered waking up in that horrible cell and escaping when the humans opened the door. They'd had these long sticks that fired large pellets at dangerously fast speeds. I shuddered, reliving the moment when several pellets tore through the flesh of my leg. The pain was excruciating, and the memory made my wound throb.
Sensing my thoughts and feeling my pain, Janine stroked her fingers over the sensitive skin on my neck. The sensation made me feel a little better, which only confused me more. Janine was a human. So why was she so gentle? I'd have thought that when she found me injured and bleeding she would've at least called for another to come finish me off. But no. Instead she decided to help me. Yes, she had been a little afraid at first, but once I let her know I wouldn't hurt her she was perfectly comfortable with me. She'd even given me a name! Perhaps not all humans are dangerous, just the majority of the species.
Slink. Janine's voice pulled me back to reality. Listen, she whispered in my head. I can't hear anything. I paused and lifted my head. Hissing, I listened. For a moment I thought she was simply stating that she couldn't hear the threat we were chasing, but then I noticed that there were no sounds coming from the forest. No birds chirped or rustled the leaves of the trees they were hiding in; no small animals moved through the thick brush. Even the insects were silent. That was not a good sign. Janine thought so, too.
Are you doing that? She said softly. I smelled as well as felt her fear growing.
I don't think so. There's something else out there. I turned my head towards her. Maybe you should've gone with Jack, I suggested, resenting the thought. She shook her head, and didn't reply.
Crouching low, I slithered through the dense undergrowth, my belly brushing the ground. I went in the direction I thought the threat was hiding. Moving slowly, getting closer, and closer... There! It was just up ahead. Janine shivered and clung tighter to the appendages on my shoulder blades.
Suddenly I froze, and Janine gasped quietly. There in front of us was the thing we were looking for. It was shaped like a human, but was much larger. I couldn't make out anything else about it, because I was afraid if I tried to see better with echolocation I would give our position away.
But why was it so familiar? I knew I'd seen this creature before, somewhere, but I can't remember. It must've been sometime before the crash...
A twig snapped behind us.
The human-thing whipped around. I quickly ducked behind a tree, seriously hoping that it hadn't seen us. It made a strange noise, sounding like a growl, with a series of rapid clicks mixed in.
Slink... Janine said fearfully.
Shhh. The monster began to make it's way toward us. Frantic, I searched my mind for any kind of escape. I couldn't possibly fight it in my condition. If I were feeling up to full strength and didn't have a defenceless human female with me it would be a different story. However, since I'm not feeling up to full strength and I do have defenceless human female with me, I'm going to have to find an alternate means of dealing with this thing, because I had a very strong feeling that it wouldn't hesitate to kill Janine if it got hold of her. Then I got an idea.
Hang on tight, I told Janine. Her grip on me tightened as I reared and dug my talons into the bark of the tree. Ignoring the throbbing pain in my leg I pulled myself up, making sure no part of my body showed to the monster.
Climbing the tree quickly and silently was easy. My body was built for noiselessly scurrying up walls and on ceilings. It's the only reason I managed to escape the humans that had held me captive alive.
I settled on a high-up branch, wrapping my tail around it for extra balance. Just in time, too. The human-thing had reached the spot we had been hiding in just moments before. It made another growling-clicking noise, sounding annoyed. It stayed there for a moment. Janine held her breath, niether of us daring to move. Maybe it'll think it was imagining things. If we should be so lucky.
Just as I was beginning to think it would get bored and walk away, it looked up.
It spotted us, and gave a roar that rocked me to my core. Unable to resist, I leaned down the trunk of the tree and shrieked, baring my teeth and letting my tongue shoot outwards. Then I turned and leapt across to another tree. Janine gasped, her stomach doing flips, and the monster gave chase, also taking to the trees and jumping nimbly between them as easily as I did.
The monster kept pace with me. I sensed something flying through the air toward us. I jumped and landed heavily on the ground. Something long and narrow thudded into the tree trunk above us, right where Janine's head would've been. I screamed again in anger. No more!
I spun around to face the monster. Janine was terrified.
Slink, what are you doing! You can't fight it! It'll kill you! She cried. The monster flew out of the trees and landed in front of us, bent down in a crouch to absorb the shock.
Slowly, it rose. For a moment we just stood there, watching each other. Sensing it glance at Janine, I crouched and hissed threateningly.
Dare touch her and you will regret it, I snarled mentally at the monster, not even sure if it could hear me. Apparently it did, because I felt it's head jerk in surprise, as though someone had just raked their claws down it's face. The monster quickly recovered. It stared at us and made that odd clicking noise again. It cocked it's head to one side regardingly, then lifted one arm. A long metal thing shot out of the thing he was wearing on his wrist, most likely a weapon. I snarled and prepared for a fight.
"Wait!" Janine slid off my back and moved to stand by my head.
Janine! Alarm shot through me. She touched my face consolingly, though she was still frightened. I growled as Janine turned back to the monster. It was watching, still threatening to attack just by standing there, but seemingly interested. What will it do now? I wondered. If it tried to harm her...
Fortunately, we didn't get to find out what it would've done, because just then a huge white van came crashing through the trees. The monster sprung out of the way before it could get mowed down.
"Jack!" Janine ran up to the van as it skidded to a halt. The the side door opened and a female stuck her head out.
"And Cerra," she said,grinning. I trotted up behind Janine, unwilling to let her get too far away from me.
"Woah," the one called Cerra said. "What is-"
"No time!" Jack called from the front. "Get in!"
Janine jumped in next to Cerra. I hung back, unsure. Cerra grinned.
"C'mon, then! Any friend of Janine's is a friend of mine, regardless of species." I was still uncertain, but a furious roar on the other side of the van made up my mind. I climbed inside, and Cerra giggled as she and Janine squeezed against the wall to make room for me. I curled up at the back of the cabin. Janine slammed the door closed and I wrapped my tail around her, pulling her close to me.
"Step on it!" Cerra shouted. Jack did, too. I heard him slam his foot down on some kind of trigger and the van lurched forward. He turned the wheel and we turned sharply, back through the newly made trail. The van bounced and jerked uncomfortably, but at least it was safe.
A hideous howl sounded behind us. I shuddered, worried. That monster wasn't going to give up, even though we'd gotten away from it for now. It would continue hunting us, and probably wouldn't stop until Janine and I were dead, or it was. It was a Hunter. How I knew this I have no idea, but what I did know was that I had to protect Janine, at all costs. I would die before I let the Hunter have her. It was my fault that it was even targeting Janine, so it was my responsibility to keep her safe.
Janine very gently scratched me under the corner of my jaw. I tilted my head up and purred, hearing Cerra giggle again.
For now, at least, things would be alright.
How convenient. Jack and Cerra to the rescue! Now before you all say that this doesn't make sense, let me explain. Jack drove to town and sat in the Shack waiting for Cerra, when he came out of the trance Janine had put him in (I hope you all had already gotten that). Town wasn't that far away from where Jack left Janine, so Jack got up and ran back to where he'd parked the van just as Cerra pulled in on her bike. Jack tells her to get in and of course tells hereverything about what's happened. Cerra, being the eccentric that she is, believes him and together they plow through the woods following where Jack guesses they've probably gone. Naturally he guesses right and gets there just in time to almost run over a Predator (which he didn't see because The Pred was using his cloaking device. Invisibility has no meaning to those without eyes [quote from AVP comic]) and save their sorry carcasses from becoming grisly trophys for Pred's trophy case. Lol sorry. Well, there you go. Please review and tell me if I'm doing anything WRONG. D8