Chapter seven:

Underground Sewer Lines
Gunnison, Colorado
October 6, 2008

"So… why did you send Lex back to the surface?" Elaina asked after traveling down several long tunnels that led to more tunnels that led to even more tunnels. Sometime back in the beginning of their journey through the maze of sewer lines, Elaina had lost feeling in her toes and the ability to smell. The stench of the sewage and waste must have singed the inside of her nostrils so badly because she could no longer smell it. That worried her a little bit. What if she never got her sense of smell back and the last thing she could remember smelling was human waste?

Only the hope of a scalding hot shower once she got out of here kept her from really panicking over the thought.

"Ooman not armed," he answered her. "Not even Blooded Yautja would begin a hard-meat hunt unarmed."

"Oh." Elaina could understand his logic there. Looking down at the spear in her hands, it brought another question to mind. "So, why were you wondering where I got the spear from?"

"Ki-cti-pa," he corrected her.

"See, there's that word again," Elaina said, suddenly recognizing it from before. "Celtic said the same thing and you both act as if I would be able to pronounce it."

Warkha glanced back at her from over his shoulder, but didn't bother to comment.

"Celtic helped me before," she explained, even though he hadn't asked her who he was. "He gave me this." She pointed to the marking on her forehead. "Scar gave one to Lex also. I think it was because we helped them during their trial or something, I dunno… I never really thought I deserved mine, though." She knew she was ramblings, but she couldn't help the words that came spilling out of her mouth as her nerves got the best of her.

Warkha huffed under his breath. "Yautja only Blood if deserved. M'dli-te gave you spear. You deserve spear," he said with finality. He turned back then to continue moving forward. Opening his computer, he consulted the holographic image of the sewer line before him.

Elaina looked down at the spear in question, thinking about his words as she followed him deeper into the sewers. Biting her bottom lip, she looked back up at him. "So… there's a good chance that we – well, I might not make it out of here alive – I was wondering, er, well, I was hoping actually – if I could know your name?" she asked him, stumbling over the question in hopes of not insulting him.

Warkha paused halfway down the tunnel. They hadn't come across any hard-meats since splitting up and going deeper into the sewer lines, but the ooman remains and the excrements left behind from the hard-meats told him they were down here somewhere. The further they traveled, the thicker the slime became and they were getting closer to what the hard-meats had made as their nest. There had been no signs of eggs though, which gave him some hope that a Queen hadn't been born. But if there was one thing his years of experience had taught him it was not to be led by false hope. The other two Yautjas sent to help him would be here soon and if there was a Queen, the three of them should be able to bring her down. He doubted the ooman would be of much help to him down here; with her limited sight and small stature, she would be of little use to him in a fight, at least nothing more than to be used as a distraction.

Staring down at the small female, he cocked his head to the side, curious about her need in knowing his name. He could not recall a time that an ooman had inquired about it before now.

She was indeed a strange breed.

He knew she would not be able to pronounce his name properly, if her ooman renaming of the Yautjas she had met before gave any indication. Drawing up his knowledge of the ooman language, he searched for a term that might suit him best, as well as something that was simple for her to pronounce.

"I am Warkha," he said while pressing a hand to his chest to indicate that was his name, "but you call me 'Wolf.'"

A small smile twitched at the corner of her lips. It really amazed her, his extensive knowledge of the human language known as English. After muddling through with Ci'tde for two days down in the pyramid, it was nice to be able to understand one of them without as many hand gestures or any misinterpretations on her part.

"Alright, Wolf," she said, thinking the name did suit him rather well. Lone wolf, more like it, she mused to herself silently. He had come down here alone to take on what was looking to be a hard-meat outbreak and he made it seem like it was no big deal.

"Ooman have name?" he asked with a trill. He had heard the other female call her a name, but he was not sure if it was a term of endearment or if it was actually her name.

"Oh!" Elaina said with a flush to her cheeks. "Geez, where are my manners…? Right, uh, my name is Elli." She pointed to herself, much like he had done when introducing himself.

Warkha nodded his head. "Good hunting, Elli," he said with a nod and turned back to face the tunnel they were traveling down. "Now, true hunt begins."

Elaina swallowed thickly at his words. "Actually, it feels like it never ended…" Those were the last words she said as she understood their need to be silent from now on.

Elaina followed him around a corner, having to wade through the filthy water that was up to her waist. An echoing scream from further down had them both freezing to listen. That was most definitely human, she realized and felt her stomach lurch at the thought. Elaina glanced over at Warkha and wondered what he planned to do now that they had found – what was more than likely – the nest up ahead of them.

Warkha reached down to his belt and removed a small, triangular-shaped device and threw it at the wall of the tunnel to their right. The device stuck and the front lit up with three bright red lines. He continued further, taking cautious steps forward with the small female trailing closely behind him.

They reached a small junction that had two tunnels in front of them. He eyed each one, studying the darkness in his night vision. He picked the tunnel on the left and continued moving. At the end, he removed a second device and threw it against the wall, much like he did the first.

Elaina eyed the contraption, wondering what the hell it was. She watched the front light up like the others had, but couldn't figure out what it was meant to do. Hurrying to catch up, she followed him as the tunnel split into thirds.

Warkha studied his map and, ignoring the tunnels on the left and in front, picked the tunnel going right. Elaina was happy with his selection as the ground elevated and they were no longer wading through three feet of water but walking on dry land at last.

Or as dry as a sewer can get, she mused.

Adjusting her hold on her spear, she followed silently and kept her ears trained for any noise out of the ordinary. The tunnel they traveled down now was lined with piping on both sides of them. Elaina wondered if they were directly under the main part of the city now. If so, that had her worried as the hard-meats could get out of the sewers through one of the many manholes above them. If they got out, they could easily begin to multiply and kill everyone in Gunnison.

Wringing her hands around her spear, Elaina paused as Warkha threw a fourth device at the wall. She watched it screw itself into the cement and light up with the three red lines. She really wanted to ask him what they were for, but she could hear movement echoing around them now. The constant dripping of water in the hollowness of the sewer line made it impossible to tell which direction it was coming from. She tried not to think about the fact that it sounded like it came from all around them, surrounding them down here in the dark.

Elaina closed her eyes, trying to fight back the memory of a similar situation. I am not alone this time. This is not like the time in the pyramid. She forced her eyes to open, blinking to clear her vision. It was terribly dark down here in the sewers and her flashlight could only light up so much, but she could make out discernible shapes around her.

Looking past Warkha, Elaina could see they had circled back to the first junction. She knew it was the same small room because she could see the blinking red lights of the first device attached to the tunnel wall directly in front of them.

Warkha consulted his map, making sure the traps were in place, before looking back at the female. "Good hunting, Elli," he growled low at her. Before she could question him, Warkha leaped forward into the filthy sewer water below with a loud, challenging roar.

Elaina let out a gasp of surprise, having not expected it after being trapped in silence all this time. She stared wide-eyed at him as he flexed his arms at his sides and bellowed another challenge. To her dismay, aliens came pouring out of their hiding place and she had to wonder how they had not seen them during their travel through the sewers until now. She could see two bounding towards them on the ceiling along the length of the tunnel in front of them. Another appeared out of the water, the spikes on its back raising out of the water's surface much like the fin on a shark as it swam towards them.

Warkha wasted no time in arming the traps, now that he knew they were all here. Bright red beam of light lit up each end of the tunnels, trapping the aliens with them; he was not going to let any of them escape alive. Warming up his plasma gun, he aimed at the nearest alien and fired.

Noise from behind her had Elaina whirling around, just in time to avoid an alien lunging at her. She managed to bring the spear up as she turned to follow the alien's movements. Her heart raced in her chest as the alien landed on the other side of the tunnel and came charging back towards her. She lifted the spear as its tail slashed out at her and she deflected the attack. As the alien readied to strike again, Elaina jabbed at its unprotected belly.

The alien screeched and its tail struck with deadly intent at her head. She ducked, narrowly avoiding getting stabbed in the face. She brought the other end of the spear around and swept it at the alien's feet, knocking it down. Raising the spear, she stabbed down and effectively pierced the alien's skull. Wrenching the spear free, she stared at her kill with bated breath, half-expecting it to come back to life. To her relief, the dead alien merely twitched in the throes of its sudden death and she released the breath of air she had been holding in when it finally stopped moving. Swallowing thickly, Elaina forced herself to look away from the alien and turned to check on Warkha only to find him wrestling with two aliens on his own.

Warkha shoved one off of him, rolling to the side and springing back up to his feet. Grabbing the alien nearest him by the tail, he threw it towards the mesh of red lines down the tunnel. Upon impact, the alien was sliced to pieces. Releasing his wrist blades, he turned just in time to deflect the second alien's tail and sliced it off. Removing a throwing disc from his belt, he extended the blades as he twirled on his heels and severed the alien's head from its body.

With the last alien felled, Warkha stood tall amongst the carnage, having hardly worked up a sweat. His breathing was elevated, but he found himself far from being out of breath. He listened intently to the surrounding area, but could not hear anything other than the water rippling around him. Turning his head left then right, he could not see anything lurking in the darkness either. He scanned the tunnels carefully with his night vision, even going so far as to check with sonar.

Remembering the female, Warkha turned, only to find her standing over the remains of the alien she had killed, her chest rising and falling with each breath she took. She was staring at him with an odd expression on her face – one he would relate with a young pup that had just witnessed its first sparring match.

"Elli good?" he inquired with a trill.

The small female nodded, her arm lowering her weapon out of the defensive pose she had been in. He had to amend his first opinion of the female. Maybe she wasn't as helpless as he first thought.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine… how many did you kill?" she asked him. She had only witnessed the two, but with the speed he had moved, she would not be surprised if he had killed a hundred in the few minutes it had taken her to kill just the one.

Warkha mentally calculated each batter before answering. "Four."

"That means we have one left… unless you've killed some more before we came down here, that is," she said.

Warkha shook his head. He had tracked the hard-meats from the shuttle to this drainpipe and, until now, the only aliens he had come across were the two females. "No… How you know how many kiande amedha?" he asked with a trill.

"The, uh, specimen jars on the ship. There were ten on board and only four dead crab thingies," she replied as she joined him back down in the sewer water. "Which means there were six that got out. And if you just killed four and I killed this one, then there must be one left."

"H'ko," he said with a low growl. He had not seen the creature from the recordings on the ship down here. All of these hard-meats had been normal ones born from oomans. "Two more," he corrected.

"Two?" she asked with a frown.

"Sei-i," he said and started towards the tunnel they had taken to get here. He deactivated the traps as he approached the red beams. "One kiande amedha born from your planet. One born from mine came with ship."

"Oh." Elaina suddenly recalled the extensive damage done to the interior of the ship. "Well, that sucks – wait, where are we going now?"

"Surface," Warkha answered her. "We come back at night, other kiande amedha not here now."

Elaina followed him down the maze of tunnels that led them back to the surface. They found Lex standing by the opening, anxiously wringing her hands.

Upon seeing Elaina, Lex threw her arms around the smaller woman and hugged her fiercely. "Oh, thank god you're alright!" she exclaimed and her grip only seemed to tighten around her.

Sheepishly, Elaina hugged Lex back, unsure of what to say in return.

Warkha paused behind them, his head tilted to one side as he studied their position. "Elli fine," he said and felt the spines around his face bristle at the other female's concern. "Good huntress. Killed kiande amedha."

"What?" Lex asked, pulling back to stare at her then him and back again. "What did he say?"

"Uh… I killed one of the aliens," Elaina explained guiltily. "I guess we found a nest of them or something. But Wolf killed four of them and I got one… which means there are only two left."

"Wolf…?" Lex questioned, her eyes darting between the two of them.

"Uh, yeah… He said I could call him 'Wolf,'" Elaina said with a shrug. She peeled herself out of Lex's hold and started for the car. "Wolf thinks we should try coming back tonight to get the last two aliens. So it might be good for us to head back to our room and get some sleep before then, what do you think?"

"Elli, hold on," Lex called after her. "Are we even going to talk about this?"

"Talk about what?" Elaina asked defensively. She stood at the driver's side door, itching to climb inside and drive away from the place for now. She was soaking wet, exhausted and probably smelled worse than a dumpster. Looking over at the other woman, she pinned her with a tired stare. "I just want to get back to our room, Lex, please."

Lex blew out an exasperated breath of air, her arms thrown out to her sides. "I want to talk about what went on down there," she said a little more forcefully than she intended. "You killed an alien? Are you sure you're okay?"

"Of course I'm okay, Lex," Elaina said defensively. "Other than the fact that I smell really really bad right now and I'm tired as hell, I feel pretty good."

"Elaina…" Lex said, her expression softening some.

Elaina knew that look. She had seen it many times over the past four years to understand what came with that look. Closing her eyes for a moment, she counted to ten before opening them and turning to face Lex completely. "Lex, I'm not going to break, alright?" she explained, trying to keep her voice calm and not let her temper get the best of her. "I know you feel like you need to protect me, but I'm not a kid anymore. Yes, I know there's scary shit out there – whether it be human or alien – you can't protect me from it all, okay?"

Lex looked ready to argue the matter more, but the words seemed to die in her throat when her attention caught onto something just over Elaina's shoulder.

"Oh shit…" Lex whispered, her eyes widening in shock.

Startled, Elaina whirled around, her body reacting to the threat by lifting the spear in front of her. She half-expected to find one of the aliens poised to attack her. Instead, her eyes landed on two distorted shapes standing not five feet from her and the rental car.

One stood taller than the other with the shorter of the two standing slightly behind the taller one. Elaina paid little mind to the shorter one, though, her eyes staring up at the massive, humanoid shape standing right in front of her. She drew in a sharp breath, her eyes widening with recognition.

Damn if he didn't look like he had gotten bigger since she last saw him.

"Celtic," she whispered his name.


AN: This chapter was revised on 12/17/2013.

A huge thanks goes out to my beta reader Welcome the Rising Sun, who is helping me with my horrendous spelling/grammar errors. Thank you so much for helping me out with this :)

Short but sweet I know.

So what did you think of this latest chapter? Elaina has gotten her backbone finally I think. And just in time too. Duh ta da Celtic is here! Woot woot bout time too!

I have gotten a couple of reviews about making this story into a Wolf/Elaina/Celtic love triangle thingy. I'm not exactly sure about this, so I would like your feedback on the matter. Tell me what you think of the idea. If needed I could always write another alternate reality like I did for Nev'ka ^_-

Let me know what you think of the story so far, did you loved/liked/hated it. Tell me what do you think of my portrayal of Wolf? He's kind of a badass! And what do you think of Elaina? Has she come a long way?

I want to thank everyone that reviewed, your feedback is truly inspiring.

Inky Out