Predator
The jungle was even denser than Hicks remembered it. Everywhere big, wet leaves encroached on his personal space. The mud stuck to the shoes. The company was not the merriest either. Stronghold was intently focused on the life signs detector; she had not said a word since they left the crashed alien ship. Day and Gabriel walked silently behind her. Day had finally got hold of Darwin, who had been worried sick in the dropship. Day had tried to explain everything as good as he could to him. Hicks walked last. He felt it was better that way. If anyone was to be ambushed, he felt he should be the one to go down first.
Sometime by early evening, he began hearing noises. They were almost indistinguishable from the sounds they made as they walked, but they were softer, as if they were padded.
"Are you sure there's nothing on that detector?" He asked.
"Nothing." Said Stronghold. Day held up until Hicks came up to him.
"You think there's something there?" He asked. He was not frightened, but rather agitated.
"I don't know." Said Hicks. "Don't you hear anything?"
"Nothing." Day said, shaking his head. At the very same moment something big crashed down behind Hicks and in front of Stronghold. The first Hicks saw was how Day flew away towards a tree. The hit knocked him out completely and he sagged down by it. Before Hicks had the time to turn, something heavy hit him on his back and made him fall straight down into the mud. As he looked up from the ground, he could not see anything! Confused, he wondered whether the thing that had hit him had run away? The answer came as a spear like object hit him in the head, making him fall down again. The helmet rolled off his head. Were they invisible? Feeling nauseous from the hit, he managed to look at Stronghold; she seemed to be wrestling with some invisible force. The world felt like a roller coaster, spinning around in all possible directions. Up, down, left and right, getting up was not an option even though he tried. Where was Gabriel? Touching his forehead with his hand he felt the blood on his fingers. Something moved past him, but seemed to stop. Something hit Hicks in the back of the neck. He fell down on the ground, this time unmoving.
Gabriel stood still as a rock behind a tree. Being cold by nature, the aliens would not see him, as they hunted mostly with infrared. He could see Hicks, but he had been knocked out. So was Day. The alien that had wrestled with Stronghold had finally captured her. There was silence for a while before the two aliens uncloaked. They said something to each other before one of them carried away Hicks and the now backbound Stronghold, and Day. Gabriel took their bearing, guessing that the one carrying Day was going back to their ship and the other somewhere into the forest.
His priority was to protect Hicks… but how was he supposed to do that? With a 10 mm gun? He needed help. As the aliens disappeared, he quickly turned and began running towards the dropship. Being much quicker than any human, and more agile he made the trip in twenty minutes. The sun was setting behind the thick clouds, but it looked like they would soon leave the sky and allow the night sky to be seen within hours. The weather was fickle on this planet. There would be no more rain. Gabriel jumped out of a pair of bushes and looked for scratches, if any water got into his system he would be fried… Finding none, he turned to the position of the dropship, finding it smoking. Stopping dead in his tracks he looked and listened.
"Darwin!?" He called after a moment of silence. In a pair of bushes to his left a green light shone up the jungle. It was Darwin waving a glowing stick. Running over to him, Gabriel saw that Darwin was wet from top til' toe. "How long have you been…"
"A few hours…" Darwin said. "As the first blast hit, it rocked the entire ship. I thought they had bazookas or something! Realizing that there would be nothing of me left if the ship blew, I ran! I fell into a puddle to hide, and I have been in that puddle until you showed up!" Gabriel nodded.
"Very clever. They most often hunt in infrared!" Darwin's eyebrows rose.
"That explains why they left… were they the aliens from the ship?" Darwin asked. Gabriel nodded.
"Yes. And… Turner and Johnson are dead. They got Hicks and Stronghold. One of them dragged away Day towards the ship."
"Where Creux and Vespasian are waiting?" Darwin asked.
"Yes." Gabriel answered. They began walking to the destroyed dropship. Well there, Gabriel managed to salvage many of the parts he needed to repair the alien ship. Certain he could make the alien ship fly, he turned to Darwin.
"Do you want to stay here?" He asked.
"No!"
"Can you run?" Gabriel asked.
"Me? I can run for days!" Darwin answered. "Lead on!" Gabriel looked towards the forest, appreciating their position to the best of his ability; he pointed and started running back. Darwin followed swiftly behind.