Chapter 7
The Predator made his way back to the summit of the mountain, specifically to the location where the Company had dropped the xenomorphs. O'rika quickly went over what he knew in his head; if Weyland-Yutani was still monitoring the Serpents, then they'd have an outpost close by, most likely on the side of the mountain.
The Yautja didn't know what kind of experiment the Company was running, nor did he really care. All that mattered was wiping all traces of Weyland-Yutani's presence from this Earth.
This wasn't solely out of hatred for the company, but an environmental reason: it wouldn't be wise to allow the humans of this world access to highly advanced technology before they were ready for it.
Focusing on the task at hand, O'rika began searching for the entrance into the concealed outpost.
"Oh no." Luke muttered. "No, no, no, no, no."
"What is it?" Owen asked, as the blood drained from Luke's face. "What's wrong?"
His fellow scientist said nothing, merely pointing at the screen. When Owen took a look, he felt his own blood freeze at the implications.
The exterior motion sensors had been tripped.
"Calm down." He told Luke, who glared at him. "It could just be some of the local wildlife."
"Are you fucking serious?!" Luke all but shouted. "You really think that this is just another false alarm?!"
"Calm down." He repeated. "It could just be another deer that wandered into our perimeter. I'll dispatch some Combat androids to look into it."
Luke said nothing else, instead sitting back in his chair and started mumbling to himself. Owen gave the order for two combat androids to check the exterior of the outpost hatch, all while ignoring the pit in his stomach.
It could have been some of the local wildlife again. They'd been making a habit of crossing through the perimeter in the hopes of escaping the monstrous creatures. Still, he hadn't survived this long in Wey-Yu's science division by being complacent. And the fact that the exterior cameras weren't showing anything wasn't a good sign.
Sighing, Owen watched the status readings of the two androids as they rode the elevator to the surface.
O'rika crouched on a tree overlooking the hidden entrance to the Company outpost. Camouflaged to look like a rock formation, just like the rest of the pod-like structure perched on the side of the mountain, the hatch was well hidden from prying eyes.
The Predator knew that he had to coax security out, otherwise the whole facility would go into lockdown if he tried to break in manually. He could eventually beat the defenses, but why waste time?
To that end, he had intentionally set off the motion detectors and hacked the few surveillance cameras to broadcast a looped recording, using his wrist computer. Now all he had to do was wait.
O'rika didn't have to wait long; with a whirring noise, the hatch opened and a pair of combat synthetics emerged from an elevator. The two androids looked around, unaware that their target was behind them.
After a moment of scanning, the androids decided that there was nothing out here and that it was a false alarm. "Area secured." One reported over the radio, causing the Predator to inwardly chuckle. Wey-Yu combat androids weren't exactly known for their intelligence.
After a moment, the commander in the base had probably replied and told them to return to base. "Acknowledged." The synthetic replied, before keying a signal that opened the hatch. That was when the Yautja made his move.
O'rika fired a plasma bolt and hurled his smart-disc, destroying both androids before they could react. Pushing the corpses onto the elevator, the Predator rode down into the outpost until he reached the main door.
Grabbing both bodies, he used their IDs to trick his way into the base, hurling the corpses at the Combat Android who responded to the open door. At this point, the alarms started blaring, O'rika's intrusion having finally been detected.
One combat android rounded a corner, armed with a shotgun. It stared at the Predator for a second before declaring:
"Hunter detected. Switching tactics."
Whatever the new strategy was, O'rika would never know, as he decapitated the robot with a well placed plasma bolt. Rushing past, the Yautja moved through the puddle of white blood as he made his way into the facility.
Rounding another corner, O'rika found himself face to face with a squad of androids armed to the teeth. Unsheathing his wrist blades and pulling out his smart-disc, the Predator charged into the fray.
"Damnit! Luke, prep the evac procedures!" Silence greeted him. "Luke?"
Owen looked around, only to find that Luke had vanished. He swore. That gutless coward had chosen to run. Mechanical dying screams permeated through the hallways of the small facility, as the Yautja carved a path through the complement of Combat Androids.
Desperately searching through the control room, Owen looked for something, anything to help him, but there was nothing. Wherever Luke had run off to, he had taken his communicator and the hidden side arm.
His musings were interrupted by the sound of the door opening behind him. Something fell through and landed on the floor with a loud thud. The body of a combat android no doubt. Then there was the noise that made his blood run cold: a low clicking noise.
Owen tried to run, but the Predator fired a net from its gauntlet, pinning the head scientist to the wall. The net enclosed in on him, slowly cutting into the scientist's skin, causing Owen to scream in pain. The Yautja just watched as the net cut through the scientist, then left, leaving Owen to his agonizing death.
As his bleeding slowed, Owen could swear that the Predator was enjoying this. That was the scientist's final thought before his vision began to go dark.
O'rika scoured the databanks in the control room, looking for the procedure that he needed to activate. During his search, he listened to the sound of the scientist's screams of agony, feeling grim satisfaction as the net slowly sliced him apart.
The Yautja would've been happy to make the Weyland-Yutani employee suffer for even longer, but he was on a bit of a clock here, so the Predator just had to settle for what was happening to him now.
Turning his mind back to the search, O'rika was pleasantly surprised to find two tools that could help him: a fully completed geographic map of the mines thanks to the Company's echolocation drones, and the console that showed the tracking chips embedded within the Serpents.
Downloading the information onto his wrist gauntlet, O'rika kept searching through the consoles until he found the controls he was looking for; the ones keeping the facility's mini-reactor stable.
Having found the mini-reactor, O'rika set the power source to self-destruct, using the Company's own protocols. Weyland-Yutani knew that they would abandon this outpost eventually, so they had programmed in a self-destruct sequence that would cause the base to implode, leaving no evidence of their presence.
Setting the timer for two minutes, the Yautja ran through the building, passing by the combat androids he had slaughtered on his way here. If any of them survived, they wouldn't be able to escape the blast radius in time. Spotting a hatch in the ceiling, the Yautja blasted it open with a plasma bolt.
O'rika leapt out of the building and landed on the cliff above, just as the compound vanished in an implosion of blue light. There was a moment of silence, where the only ambient noise was the howling of the wind... then his bio-mask picked up a sound further away.
Spinning around with a growl, O'rika spotted a man dressed in a Weyland-Yutani lab coat, holding one of the VP78 sidearms from the lab. The scientist had noticed the Predator looking at him.
"Oh... shit." He stuttered. A dark stain appeared on his pants.
Panicking, the man shot three rounds at the Yautja, all of which bounced off his armor. O'rika activated his cloaking device, and the scientist immediately started running, swearing in panic.
O'rika chased after the fleeing scientist, not intending to show the man any mercy. He had escaped the Yautja's wrath once, but that wouldn't happen a second time. As the Predator sprinted, the man spun around and hurled an object into his path, which O'rika quickly realized was a frag grenade.
Leaping back, the Yautja was able to escape the blast radius, but it threw up a cloud of dust, blocking his human vision. Switching to infrared vision allowed O'rika to see the still fleeing scientist as he kept running.
As well as what was following him.
Luke didn't stop, not even after throwing the grenade. He held no delusions that the explosion had killed the Predator, but hopefully it would be enough of a distraction to allow Luke to-
'To do what?'
He was alone, cut off from any form of Company support, and surrounded on all sides by beings who would want to kill him in horrifying ways. 'Maybe I can get to the cable car, and get out of here.' He thought. 'Let the kids serve as bait. Claim to be the only survivor, and find a way to contact the Company.'
He liked the sound of that plan. He had to, it was the only one he had. Besides, he still had his communicator, which had a strong enough signal to reach any Weyland-Yutani ship in orbit.
With the Predator distracted and the kids dead, it would be a trivial matter to get extraction back to friendly space. Of course, there was still the matter of what the Company execs would do when they learned of the fiasco that happned, but he would cross that bridge when he got there. His primary goal right now, was survival.
He was still mulling it over when something blind sided him, causing him to drop his communicator and weapon in surprise. He hit the ground hard, knocking the wind out of him. Whatever attacked him rolled him onto his back and Luke whimpered, terrified that the Predator, or worse, the xenomorphs had caught him.
But to his surprise, he found that it was one of the native creatures that the specimens had come into conflict with. He had only seen them through the video filter of a combat android, but in person, he found that they were even more hideous.
That's when Luke noticed the Predator some distance behind the creature, just watching events play out, and standing unusually still. A chill traveled up his spine, and not just because of the cold; he could hear a small noise coming from the Yautja, almost like it was...
Laughing?
"What the hell are you looking at me for?" Luke screamed, pointing at the Predator. "That thing is just standing right there!"
In response, the creature grabbed the scientist by the head and started dragging him through the snow. His screams echoed through the mountain as the monster dragged him away, easily mistaken for the howling wind.
O'rika watched as the Wendigo took the Company scientist away, screaming at the top of his lungs. The Predator had been tempted to stop it, but then he remembered what the old man had said.
'First, the Wendigo renders you completely immobile. Then he strips the skin off you, before finally eating your organs, all while conscious.'
That was a fate well deserved for someone who willingly unleashed the Serpents here. Besides, the Predator would've done far worse. O'rika walked over to the where the scientist had dropped his comm and VP78 pistol, the only remaining evidence of Weyland-Yutani's presence (besides the xenomorphs).
Crushing them both underfoot, the Predator could now resume his hunt for the Serpents. Making his way to the nearest tunnel opening, O'rika pulled a mine from his bandolier and planted it at the entrance, set to detonate only when given the signal from his gauntlet.
Making his way through the mines, the Yautja found another entrance leading to the surface. Planting yet another mine, the Predator checked his gauntlet, finding two of the entrances on the map were now marked in red.
With the new maps and xenomorph trackers so graciously provided by Weyland-Yutani, O'rika could now end the Serpent infestation once and for all.
The Stranger awoke in a darkened passageway and two things became apparent. First, he was back in the mines, and second, something was dragging him down the tunnels. Initially thinking it was a Wendigo, the long black fingers around his head and razor sharp tail next to him put that suspicion to bed.
Taking a quick look around, the Stranger found that he only had the machete on him, having lost his flamethrower when the creature grabbed him, and having given his shotgun to the kid when they went for Josh.
Lacking any better option, he drew the machete and waited. The creature seemed unaware of his newly conscious state, and when it dragged him around the corner, he made his move. Swinging the machete, he drove the blade into the creature's skull.
Acidic blood reduced the blade to a puddle of liquid metal, but the damage was done, as the creature convulsed in pain, before slumping against the wall, releasing its grip on him. The Stranger had avoided the blood back spray and discarded the now useless machete.
Rising to his feet, the Stranger took a moment to steady himself and get his bearings. He was intimately familiar with most of the mine, and this section was no exception. He was close to the spare flamethrower that he had hidden down here long ago.
All he had to do was get to it. Shrieking and hissing interrupted his musings as the sound of conflict returned. It seemed the Wendigos were once again fighting the other creatures... and he was unarmed.
This may be a bit challenging.
In a darkened pit in the mine, something stirred. Groaning emerged from the battered form of Jessica as she woke from her painful fall into the mine. She couldn't remember much of what happened. All she knew was that someone grabbed her... and that Mike had came for her.
Everything after that was fuzzy. All she could remember was falling when the elevator collapsed and then... nothing. Grunting in pain, she struggled to get to her feet, taking in the damage to her body.
Cuts and lacerations covered her body, bruises had swollen her cheek and stomach, and her leg was seemingly broken or sprained. To top it all off, she was still in her underwear and it was freezing cold.
Spotting an old mining jacket nearby, she limped over to the discarded clothing and put it on, feeling the pain with every step she took. Taking a look around, Jess was still pondering her next move when she heard the sounds of shrieking and hissing coming fom nearby.
Sam, Chris, Ashley and Emily made their way through the mines in pursuit of Mike. He had run off to find Josh and the keys to the cable car, but while he was gone, Ashley had discovered the flamethrower guy's journal.
After reading through it, she learned that there was more than one Wendigo, and when Sam saw that, she realized that Mike would have no way of knowing that. Rallying the others, she led them after Mike, needing to warn him.
However, they had found one of the doorways blocked, and so had no choice but to take a short cut through the monster infested mines. Reaching a metal grate covering, the four of them stopped and moved to open it when Chris spoke.
"Guys," He groaned, the pain in his leg clearly affecting him. "I'm not sure I can keep up with the rest of you."
"Chris, what are you saying?" Ashley asked.
"You guys go on ahead. I'll stay here." He said, leaning against a wall. "I'm only slowing you down anyway."
"Chris, we can't just leave you here." Sam protested. "Not with all those things prowling around."
"Mike needs your help. And I'm just holding us up. If I stay, you can get to him sooner."
"Chris, we're not leaving you." Ashley stated with a tone of finality. "Not to any of those things."
She didn't want to lose him. Not now, not after everything that had happened tonight. With that settled, they opened the grate and climbed down into the mine. Ashley was the last, but as she made her way down, she realized that she would need to close the grate.
While everyone else went on ahead, she did just that. But as she followed the path the others had taken, she was interrupted by a noise. It almost sounded like...
"Help."
That voice. It sounded strained, but it was Jessica's voice. Ashley rushed towards the noise, finding the sound to be coming from a locked trapdoor. She moved to open it, but then she remembered something in the old man's journal.
The Wendigos had the ability to mimic voices. Slowly, she backed away from the trap door, conflicted about what she was doing. On one hand, if it was Jess, Ashley was abandoning her to die, but if it wasn't...
Her musings were interrupted when something warm and wet splattered on her hat. Confused, she brought her fingers to the substance, finding it surprisingly sticky. She realized it wasn't water... it was drool!
Looking up, she saw what could only be one of the black creatures crawling on the ceiling. It's head turned to her, and she caught a good view of its eyeless face and drooling mouth. The creature hissed, opening its mouth to reveal another set of teeth inside.
Screaming, Ashley bolted back the way she came, narrowly avoiding the creature's tail as it leapt down behind her. Unfortunately, she tripped on a piece of rebar, knocking her to the floor.
"Ashley!"
Whimpering, she crawled back, dimly aware of the sound of Chris' shouting coming from around the corner. The creature was focused only on her, seemingly enjoying the fear radiating from her.
Just as it moved in for the kill, a hand appeared out of nowhere and grabbed the alien's head, interrupting its lunge and throwing it to the ground with a loud inhuman roar. A large armored being with reptilian skin and dreadlocks held the black creature's head in one hand, while the other held a strange knife.
Snarling, the armored being jammed the blade into the creature's jaw, causing the creature to briefly screech before abruptly cutting off. The Hunter (for that was only what it could be), sheathed its dagger on his hip, before turning to regard her.
"Ashley."
She spun her head around to see Chris leaning on a wall and holding a hand out to her. He had arrived just in time to see the Hunter's arrival, who was now currently watching the two humans with his head cocked to the side seemingly in curiousity.
As Ashley got up, the sound of screeching emerged from behind the hunter, who turned to regard the source. The trapdoor that Ashley had heard Jess' voice from was now being battered, slowly breaking as whatever was behind forced it open.
Emitting a low growl, the hunter briefly turned back to them and pointed down where the two humans had come from.
"GET OUT OF HERE!"
The voice almost sounded like a distorted recording of the flamethrower guy, but Ashley had no time to ponder that as Chris grabbed her hand and pulled her back to the main tunnel.
Sam and Emily rounded the corner as well, wondering what the disturbance was. They arrived just in time to see one of the black creatures break open the trap door, while the hunter slammed his fist into a nearby support column, causing that section of the tunnel to collapse.
For a long moment, the four of them just looked at the pile of rocks blocking the entrance to the tunnel. Then Emily asked the obvious question.
"What the fuck just happened?"
I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter, and reviews are always welcome.
