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As I continued to crawl through the narrow ducts, I kept thinking about Charles. He didn't have to die that way, but his ignorance was his destruction. I tried to help him, but deep down I knew he wouldn't have come with me, at least without putting us both in serious danger.
I could hear the groaning of the metal support beams of the facility breaking under the increasing pressure. Next would be the sound of shattering glass, and at the rate I was going, I'd only be on the fifth floor when I got crushed. To make matters worse my arms were beginning to lock up and I knew that soon I would have to re-enter the hallways if I wanted a real chance to live.
"Just a few more feet Lance." I coached myself, trying to keep focus and not loose my cool, but every time I heard one of those beams groan, a new twinge of fear went through me. Suddenly, my head began to spin and I felt my lungs tightening up. I squeezed my hand out from under me and clenched my chest.
"I have to get out of here." I said quietly, trying to catch my breath. The availability of air was decreasing, and if I didn't get out of this small space then I would suffocate.
Then, I heard Mia's inhuman roar and froze. I listened to her footsteps as I started to slide slowly towards the next opening to see what was going on. As I peeked in, I noticed she wasn't alone. The big male that had crushed Charles's head was with her. I stared through the tiny holes of the opening, realizing I had become fascinated with the two. They hung under each other like long lost sweethearts, caressing, and nuzzling each other gently- which was a side of the aliens I had never seen. They were always killing, and destroying, but seeing them show affection was odd.
I looked on as Mia teased him, which he seemed to enjoy very much. She had taken his mask and hid it behind her back and he was playfully trying to take it from her. I noticed that she was seductively backing into a corner, gesturing for him to follow- and he did eagerly, as any man being led by a beautiful woman would. Then she placed his mask between her thighs and with her other hand, gently grabbed one of his broken tusks and pulled his face close to hers making him purr excitedly while he reached down to retrieve his mask from in between her thighs.
I had to admit I was both horrified and infatuated with what I saw, it was almost like watching a human female and male tease each other. He was gently stroking every part of her to her satisfaction and she was gladly returning the favor making him purr even louder. As I continued to watch them, I felt my other arm beginning to fall asleep, and I adjusted myself carefully, not realizing I was about to make an almost fatal mistake, because as soon as I pulled my hand from under me, my flashlight fell out of my pocket and hit the metal with a loud clank.
"Oh shit!" I thought hoping they didn't hear me through all of the other noise, but then I heard Mia's nasty hiss and I turned around to see her yellow eyes staring in at me.
"Thought you could hide from me?" She snarled pulling the metal cover away with her clawed hands and reaching in to pull me out.
I scrambled to crawl away from her, but she caught my foot and pulled me back ripping my pants leg on the edge of the opening and scraping up my leg.
"Let me go!" I screamed, kicking violently and luckily landing one in her face making her yelp in pain. She released my leg and screamed, annoyed that I had gotten away from her. Behind me I could hear her pulling the metal away as she tore through the duct after me. I looked back to see her glaring at me, those yellow eyes burning into mine. Then she started laughing, which was strangely becoming similar to her mate's laugh.
"That's fine Lance. Run. I like my prey on the run!" She screamed after me.
I looked down to see my leg bleeding profusely but I couldn't let that stop me. I knew had to get to the next lab before they did, because I was sure that if she wasn't pissed before, she certainly was now that I kicked her in the face.
I crawled through the duct as if my ass was on fire ignoring the pain shooting through my arms and now my leg and after what seemed like only a few seconds- probably because I was moving so quickly- I reached the next opening.
"Don't have much time!" I said kicking the cover off the duct, pushing myself out and pulling out my gun. I walked slowly over to the door and pressed myself against it listening for Mia, but there was nothing but eerie silence.
"Okay Lance, now is the time to get the fuck out of here. It doesn't matter what's on the other side of this door just get out there and run like hell." I said taking a deep breath and loading my gun, "Here goes nothing!"
I bolted out of the lab and down the hallway glancing behind me to see if they were coming down the hall. I didn't see Mia, but I saw the male and he was walking at a steady pace.
"Wait why isn't he…"
Then I saw why he wasn't in a hurry. He was positioning something on his shoulder to aim at me.
"What the…" I started, my eyes growing wide at the blue spark building from the gun.
That's when I realized what was about to happen.
"Oh SHIT!" I yelled, ducking from the huge blue light that flew over my head into the door of the stairwell causing a huge explosion and making the entire hallway shake.
I looked up at what was left of the door and ran towards it. Suddenly, I heard the power building back up in his shoulder-mounted cannon and dropped to the floor as the blue light flew past me, this time hitting the glass wall of the stairwell in front of me.
"This isn't going to work, I said scrambling towards the stairs, "Every time I get up he's going to fire that damn thing."
I knew I had to do something or he was going to destroy the steps and ruin what little chance I still had to get out of here, so I pulled out my gun and as he geared up to shoot at me again I fired at him, hitting him in chest and neck making him roar behind his mask. For a minute, he was stunned that I had shot and actually hit him, but his surprise quickly turned into a body shaking rage. I kept my eyes on him and got up quickly, just missing another flash of blue light from the cannon on his shoulder.
…
Once at the top of the stairs, I carefully cracked open the door, silently praying that I was alone, and peeked inside. All of the security lights were broken on this level so I had to use my flashlight to navigate. As I walked carefully down the hall, a pungent order hit my nose and I immediately avoided panning my light down to the floor. I didn't want to see what was giving off that odor. I had seen enough death for the night. For a minute, I hated myself for coming back for Charles because I could have been on the surface by now, and hell, he probably would have died anyway, with or without me, but I shook the selfish but true thought from my head. I knew I was getting frustrated because I wasn't thinking like myself anymore. Well, either I was getting frustrated or the lack of oxygen was taking a toll on my brain, but whatever the situation was I needed to focus on getting out in one piece.
All of a sudden, I heard a faint voice on the floor in front of me.
"If anyone is still alive…civilian…transport will be here in two hours…please get to the surface because we will not wait…We are declaring Verion 12 a lost site. Military forces have been depleted. They've won."
I shined my flashlight down to see what the voice was coming from and saw that it was a radio. I guessed that one of the soldiers had dropped it.
"I repeat…if anyone is still alive the civilian transport…"
I held down the talk button and proceeded to talk.
"Um…hello?" I said still walking to get to the next stairwell.
"You gotta speak louder…I can't hear you…"
I hesitated then held the talk button down again.
"I'm a survivor."
"Identify yourself please!" The man on the other end yelled.
"My name is Dr. Lance Robertson and…I…I…I am the only left down here."
"O…Okay doctor…where are you?"
I shined my light around to see if I could see a level number on any of the cracked glass walls.
"Uh…I'm on level six."
The man on the other end got silent making me nervous.
"Hello?" I said beginning to panic.
"Doctor you're on level six? The transport will be here in two hours sir. There's no way…and we aren't waiting… the Yautjas…they're taking this planet."
I swallowed hard at the reality of what he was telling me.
"Please, I will be there…but I'm the only one left, and they're hunting me…"
Then I heard a loud thud behind me, making me turn around quickly.
"Doctor?" The solider asked, but I was focused on what was making that noise.
"Who's there?" I whispered dropping the radio and backing down the hall afraid to shine my light ahead of me.
The thud got louder and I heard what sounded like two heavy doors being pulled open.
"They can't be!" I thought, finally shining my light towards the dead elevator at the other end, "They can't be using the…"
But the door flew open and one of them stared down the hall at me, the eyeholes of his mask glowing red.
"Shit! That's how they're getting around!" I thought turning and running for the stairs stumbling over several soft masses on the floor. I was praying that this one didn't have one of those shoulder cannons to shoot me with. That last one damn near took off my head with it.
I could hear this one stomping down the hall after me, kicking whatever was on the floor out of his way. To be as big as they were, they were extremely quick and I could feel him getting closer.
"Please, oh please, oh please!" I chanted repeatedly as I ran frantically. Then just as I was about to reach my hand out to grab the handle of the door, the monster caught my lab coat and yanked me back throwing me off my feet and on to my back between his massive legs. I reached into my pocket for my gun, but it wasn't there. It must've fallen out when I fell. I looked up at the alien and watched him extend his wrist blades to kill me.
"Well, this is it." I thought silently as I closed my eyes waiting to feel the metal pierce through my neck, but it never came. In the distance, I could hear someone else running down the hall. Then I heard the creature standing over me roar and I opened my eyes to see a huge metal rod sticking through his chest. I rolled out of the way on my stomach just as he was about to hit the floor, located my gun and pushed myself up quickly. I wasn't going to wait to see who had killed him but at this point, I already had a clue.
"You kill you own?" I yelled, reaching for the handle of the door.
"I already told you Lance, I'm going to be the one to kill you." Mia called from behind. I could tell she wasn't giving chase because her voice was fading.
"Why aren't you running after me?" I yelled again.
Her laugh echoed through the dark hallway.
"I'll meet you at the surface doctor."
