Be prepared.


Chapter 11: Listen Closely, for the Earth Shall Quake

In the span of forty minutes, Ryus was able to find, both, a first-aid kit and a small plastic bag which contained four apples. He'd found the first in what he could only assume used to be a free clinic. He found the latter inside of a fridge. As far as he could tell, the abandoned grocery store in which the fridge resided was still wired into a privately-owned back-up generator, which granted the immediate area some limited use of electricity. Whereas, the rest of the Commercial District had... spotty electric power, at best.

He'd been able to find these items so quickly, because the apartment in which he'd left Samantha in were a lot closer to said Commercial District. Thus, the trip to and back, from there, was fairly short.

As it was now, Ryus was walking down a hallway of The Apartments, the plastic-cased first-aid kit in his jaws, the plastic bag of apples impaled and hanging from his tail-blade as he held it aloft. He was pretty sure that the direction he was walking in was that of the apartment that Samantha resided in. Hopefully, she was still there.

Ryus had been thinking of what to do after he got back to Samantha and sorted out the wound on her arm- got rid of the Hive Resin and patched it up properly. He supposed he would do his best to make sure that her leg got healed up. They would need to move quickly, in order to find a way off of Guardian-625. How exactly he would get that goal across to her was a mystery to him. And whether or not Samantha would agree to go with him, should he convey his intentions, was also up for debate.

At times, it annoyed him that he had to be the "oddball" of his Hive. That he couldn't simply remain utterly transfixed on the needs and goals of the moment, like his Hive-mates. No, instead he had to think rationally and constantly ponder the implications of various turns of events, as well as planning ahead for future possibilities. It was causing him no small amount of stress- stress that could be considered needless, but which he had to deal with anyway. If only he could "rewrite" the Ancestral and have it focus on the goals he actually cared about, instead of the things he didn't.

As Ryus padded down the hall at a semi-brisk pace, head and tail held up in a regal fashion, with his claws leaving minute scratches in the carpet, what he knew to be Samantha suddenly became visible in the distance. Her heart, a feint but clear, blue beacon in an endless ocean of nothingness that he perceived to be the world. His only reference point for things like distance, volume, and depth perception being his echolocation.

As he'd hoped, she had stayed within the apartment, but appeared to be... doing "pushups" on the floor... then she began doing "crunches", as Ryus continued to close the distance between himself and the apartment.

Alright, then, I guess she got bored of waiting, he thought, impassively.

He wondered if Samanthas' go-to response to boredom was to workout, or if it was simply the only option available to-

He abruptly stopped walking.

In the next moment, Ryus's' amenable mood was promptly put to an end. His thoughts immediately began to become encapsulated with dread and alarm. He could feel his heart begin to pump blood at an accelerated pace, his veins suddenly burning. Had he possessed eyes, they would have gone wide in shock, as a second "beacon" emerged from the infinite black fog that served as the limit to his senses. A very bright, very large signal of electroreception that could only come from one thing, with the way it was moving so quickly towards what appeared to be its destination...

A Hive-mate was making its way to Samantha.

It was sprinting on all-fours down the same hallway wherein Ryus walked. On their current paths, both him and the Xenomorph had a straight, face-on trajectory towards the apartment that the Human female was in- completely oblivious to the incoming threat.

If Ryus did not hurry, Samantha would be dead within the next five minutes. And if Ryus intervened, he would make himself a clear and present target for the Hive.

He had a decision to make. Saving Samantha would be a blatant affront to Mothers' wishes, and the directive of the Hive as a whole. It would also, undoubtedly, call for acidic blood to be spilled. Either from him, or from this Hive-mate. As it stands, Ryus still had other options. He could simply stop moving- simply stay where he was and allow for the female to be slain. The Hive-mate and Mother would believe he had no involvement, and he could find a way off of Guardian on his own.

The Unknown protested the latter course of action, heavily. Not that it needed to. Ryus's' decision had already been made, and he knew it. The Ancestral was silent.

The thin, plastic box in Ryus's mouth dropped to the floor as the spot he'd occupied was left vacant- his form already moving at full sprint down the hallway. The bag of apples fell to the floor a second later.

Ryus charged toward the invading Hive-mate with a fervor and effort that he rarely exerted, causing him to snarl and pant with each bound. His spine and tail straight as a broad, as his legs and feet were reduced to mere lightning-fast blurs beneath him. The image of the Xenomorph in front of him, which was previously but a dot on the horizon, quickly grew in size as he closed the distance. Before three seconds had passed, Ryus had built up speed that could rival a predatory bird, and had already halved the distance to the apartment.

The invader had stopped running and was just about to stand to its full height in front of the door to Samanthas' room.

It was but two more seconds before Ryus was within range of the invader (a female Soldier).

Not wasting a single newton of energy, he leaped forward- his form a mere flash of amber that soared over a distance of more than twelve feet. His right arm was brought backward, as his left tucked itself against his side.

He brought his right arm into a swing.

When Ryus's' closed fist slammed into the side of the Soldier's skull in a downward arc, (his precision in the feat worthy of more than a few accolades) it did so with the force of a speeding car. A high-velocity sledge-hammer blow that would send the Soldier into an impromptu flight. The hit wouldn't be enough to instantly shatter the female Soldier's skull, but it came pretty close.

Almost as if with practiced ease, Ryus's' legs came forward - naught more than a millisecond after his hand had struck - and kicked, impacting the Soldiers' ribs and "kidney-area" with a visceral *crack*. Both, allowing him to push the Soldier back even further, and stopping him from going down with the enemy, due to his momentum. Instead, Ryus dropped to the floor on his back, in front of the door to the apartment.

A painfully loud screech of surprise and shock came from the Soldier as she was sent tumbling across the floor of the hallway, limbs flailing in every which direction.

Ryus immediately rolled to his feet just as the Soldier managed to halt its momentum, and started getting back up. She would be dazed, and confused. Normally, Ryus would not have hesitated, and would have taken advantage of the females' current disorientation. But he had something he had to do, first. Ryus stomped forward on his two hind legs, with a deliberate, and brisk pace.

Just as the Soldier stood to her full height and saw him, Ryus was already standing directly in front of her.

The Soldier in front of him was alarmed and confused- it did not smell any hostile scents, and therefore did not know where the attack had come from. Ryus patiently waited for his presence to be properly registered by her. She was slouched over and had started drooling at the fact that there was an obvious threat somewhere in the area. But her tail was lashing about in a manner which could only entail extreme confusion.

Her left hand was hovering over the right side of her ribcage. Its claws faintly ghosting over the surface of her exoskeleton before retracting in what looked to be pain. Ryus must have broken one of her ribs with that kick of his.

Eventually, it must have finally clicked in the Soldiers' head that Ryus, the Hive-mate in front of her, was responsible for her injury. He could tell because she suddenly became extremely still- even her tail froze in the air and stiffened abruptly. He imagined that such a conclusion was inconceivable to her. And because it confused her, it scared her. The thought of a Hive-mate brazenly attacking another Hive-mate was utterly absurd, in this females' mind. Ryus knew this because thoughts and feelings of distress and internal crisis were being (rather loudly) broadcast from her head. She began to slowly step backwards. He simply advanced, not allowing any distance between the two of them.

Now that Ryus could get a closer look... he knew this Soldier. She was at least three months old, with small spines running down the length of her skull. She was at least seven inches taller than Ryus, and was much more bulky-looking, given her Caste. Ryus remembered her because he'd once been assigned to watch over her as she molted from her Newborn state- due to the majority of the Workers in the Hive being busy with constructing an underground tunnel. He'd once given her the nickname "Gangshi".

She didn't seem to remember him, though...

Almost as soon as Gangshi began backing away from him, Ryus felt a familiar buzzing sensation within his skull. A feeling that once brought him some semblance of comfort, now only brought feelings of derision and paranoia. Mother had noticed, just as he knew she would. She had felt pain and confusion in the Soldier and was going to great mental effort to concentrate and extend her telepathic reach so far away.

"Ryus!", he heard her scream at him, through the link. He'd never heard her deliberately "raise" her "voice" before, least of all in English. She usually just screamed her head off whenever she got pissed. He had to wonder why she was suddenly putting in an effort to sound animated, now, when on any other occasion, she'd do the bare minimum and end up sounding utterly robotic.

Ryus bared his teeth at Gangshi, knowing that Mother would be using him to see through the Soldier as a medium with which to view him, "make this quick, Mother", he responded, curtly, his tail raising over his shoulder.

A wave of overbearing shock and anger pulsed through the Hive-mind, "why did you attack your sister?!", she demanded.

It was then that Mothers' focus suddenly shifted toward the fact that there was a Human being not twenty feet away.

"Capture that human and return to the Hive. Immediately", the Queen ordered. Ryus wasn't sure if she was simply temporarily overlooking his act of aggression, or if the presence of the Human was truly that distracting to her. But it didn't matter.

"I'm afraid I cannot do that, my Queen", Ryus stated impassively. "That human is off-limits".

Feelings of shock from Gangshi, and unexpected rage from Mother made themselves known to him.

"What is this?!", she demanded, a bit dumbly, apparently not figuring it out, yet. The pillock.

It was only then that Ryus allowed his previously restrained feelings of contempt for Mother and the Hive to filter through the telepathic link, as he replied to her query. "Do me a favor, Mum...", he mentally spat.

"Don't bother trying to call me again. I'm done with you- and the Hive. You have nothing left to offer me", he said with finality, teeth bared, as he "cut" the mental link that had been established through Gangshi and to Mother.

Like the signing of a contract, and with the speed of a viper, Ryus's' tail blade found itself being thrust into Gangshis' sternum, only to burst out of the other side, severing the spinal cord. Ryus's' "sister" was instantaneously rendered a lifeless husk.

The recently-made corpse hung loosely from Ryus's' weapon, all appendages going slack as the invaders' tail dropped and thumped lightly upon hitting the carpet.

Ryus promptly raised a leg and kicked the corpse away like yesterdays' garbage.

Gangshis' corpse dropped to the floor anti-climactically. Instead of a "spread-eagle" position, her body simply fell onto its side. Her limbs continued to twitch, her form curling in on itself, somehow. Her jaws spread open with a sickly creaking sound, and stayed locked wide- her Piston Jaw slowly creeping out from the back of her throat. Her arms spasmed in a sporadic pattern, fingers staying locked in an "attack" position. Acidic blood quickly began seeping in a mild, yet fast current, spilling onto the carpet and overtaking the surrounding air with an acrid sizzling. But not just a "sizzle"- a "burn", a "crackle", and a "hiss", as wisps of barely-visible green vapor sprayed from the disintegrating carpet.

None of that was of any importance to Ryus.

The one detail that stuck with him... was the sound. The sound of 300 pounds of exoskeleton and muscle hitting the floor. A loud, reverberating "thump" that Ryus could feel vibrate into his feet and up his legs. That one sound found itself replaying over and over in Ryus's' head as he turned and walked away, back toward the apartment. It echoed into nothingness as he got closer to the apartment door.

It was official. He was now a fugitive. Mother would likely send her Soldiers to destroy him.

And he couldn't find any reason to feel particularly strongly about it, one way or the other.

Though, the current situation did present a problem. Ryus's' time-table had been shortened significantly- if he was still planning to leave Guardian with Samantha, then his deadline to do so was now extremely short. At most, he'd estimate that they would have two days - maximum - to get the Hell out of dodge. If Mother sent more Soldiers to kill him, he was not entirely convinced that he'd be capable of handling them. He'd managed to kill Gangshi because she was taken completely off-guard. Because she was relatively young, and was nowhere near fully grown.

A fully matured, Carved Soldier, at six months of age, stood at least eight feet tall and had enough strength to completely tear an adult, armored Human male in half. Down the middle. Ryus had witnessed a seven-month old Soldier reduce a squad of Marines into what can only be called "bloody ribbons". If that.

So... Ryus was not certain he'd be able to handle more than one Carved Soldier at a time.

All the more reason to leave as soon as possible.

He briefly contemplated why he did what he'd just done. Wondered if there had been any other choice. But, he found that there wasn't. If he'd simply killed Gangshi before any dialogue could be exchanged, Mother would just send more Soldiers to investigate the area, and they would be very thorough. In which case, fleeing the scene of the crime with Samantha wouldn't be any less difficult than it was, this way.

Speaking of which... , Ryus thought, as he reached the apartment door and stopped to stand in front of it.

Samantha had heard everything. Not the conversation, but, she'd (more or less) heard what had happened. Except, if her racing thoughts were anything to go by, she had no idea who was fighting or who had won. Other than that, the only thing she'd heard were growls and footsteps. And now... she was afraid. Again. And paranoid.


66... 67... 68... 69... 70...

A very thin sheen of sweat shined on Samanthas' forehead as she continued doing pushups, staring intently at the green carpet beneath her. The bed to the right of her, and the door to the apartment to her left. She'd spent the past... twenty- twenty-five(?) minutes exercising in the space between the bed and the door.

It had been almost thirty five minutes since the Amber Demon had left her in the apartment. About ten minutes in, she realized how stupid it was for her to simply sit there and wait- especially when she had had ample opportunity to follow after the creature. She wasn't quite sure what had happened, but her recollection of exactly "why" she'd decided to stay in the room was foggy at best. She supposed that that was what her mother had always meant whenever she made remarks about Samanthas' tendency to "space out". Though, Sam never really thought of that as a bad thing. If she was spacing out, it meant that she was thinking really hard. And if she's thinking enough to cause her to become absent-minded, whatever she happened to be thinking about must be important.

And, in this case, Samantha was confident in the opinion that it was important, this time. To her, at least. She wouldn't dream of trying to say the same for anyone else. She was the kid in middle school who paid more attention to documentaries about insects than she did to the latest celebrity news... whoever the Hell that happened to be. And insects were her least favorite subject.

Predictably, one can imagine how good of an opportunity it was to her, that she was able to observe and study a God-damned Xenomorph, up close and personal, with zero repercussions! It was a "friendly Xenomorph"- what more of an excuse did she need to start obsessing over the complicated science of xeno-biology?

... 89... 90... 91...

Of course, now that she'd been stuck in a room with nothing to do but workout for the better part of the last half-hour, she didn't particularly agree with her past-selfs' motivations, at the moment.

... 99... 100...

Samantha slumped and collapsed on the floor with a grunt of relief, before almost immediately turning over onto her back, bringing up her knees and placing her hands behind her head. She then started doing crunches.

1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 6... 7... 8...

She wondered if doing this was actually going to be beneficial, at this point... she was pretty hungry from going without food for the past three days... and she was about as muscled as she was going to get without proper caloric intake. Though, she supposed that it was the best way to stave off boredom for the moment. And it would help her get used to how inflamed her left leg was.

...17... 18... 19... 2-

She froze mid-crunch, hearing rapid thumping sounds to her right. Outside of the apartment. She shot to her feet and backed away to the rear corner of the room.

What she heard next could be summed up with the words "grunting, growling, thumping, and screeching". First (what Samantha assumed to be the footsteps of a Xenomorph coming down the hallway on the right) abruptly stopped. Then a different set of footsteps came from the left, and also... stopped, before being followed by a loud, alien screech. Two heavy objects seemed to hit the floor at the same time. One object seemed to then be in motion. More footsteps. For a while, she could hear nothing but feint growls and grunts, before a noise that sounded akin to a hole-punch, putting a circle through a stack of paper, could be picked up. Then more footsteps... which were coming towards the room that she was in.

The footfalls (seemed to) stop in front of the door to the apartment. For a solid seven seconds, nothing happened, before these same footsteps walked down the hallway to the left at a slow pace.

Needless to say, Samantha was utterly puzzled. And disturbed- don't forget disturbed. Ever.

She couldn't even begin to ponder exactly what had just happened. It was just too damn bizarre to begin to comprehend.

What she knew was that there was at least one Xenomorph outside of the apartment in which she'd taken refuge, and there was no safe way to know whether the Amber Demon was there. Samantha was now extremely aware of the fact that this "hideout" wasn't even remotely hidden. Not from Xenomorphs.

The actual problem was that she had nowhere to run or go, in case her life was in danger. There was no way that the Xenomorph outside the room hadn't seen her.

So, here she was, backed up against the wall (to the right of the bed) and gaping like an idiot- trying to figure out what to do. She really didn't like the idea of going through another panic attack.

Which wasn't helped by the sound of footsteps coming back down the outside hallway- louder and faster.


Ryus bent down and picked up the bag of apples and plastic aid-kit. His fingers awkwardly attempted to wrap around the too-small handle of the first-aid kit, before he gave up and simply brought it up to his mouth so he could hold it in his jaws.

His lips peeled back to reveal the shiny-bronze fangs which could crush the plastic package in their grip. Ryus's' legs began to strain from standing upright, forcing him to oblige their discomfort and drop to all fours with a thud.

He raised the apple bag in one hand and used his tail to carry it once again.

He turned on the spot and began walking back towards the apartment.

Ryus... was grouchy. He tended to be whenever he killed a Hive-mate and became a fugitive to his entire species- understandably.

So, one can imagine his frustration at the fact that Samantha had now reverted back to the "paranoid, primal-survival, fight-or-flight" status that he'd found her in. That he'd spent the past two days trying to get her out of.

And now, she's terrified, again. Fucking wonderful.

He asked himself how much more time and effort it would take to bring Samantha back to an amicable state. To facilitate the ability to leave the planet with her. He asked himself, honestly, if he would be able to actually do so with his current capabilities.

And he didn't like the result.

Ryus had refrained from trying to speak to Samantha, because he was unwilling to risk any adverse effects. He'd gotten a seizure as a direct result of trying to kill the female, then he'd been consumed by murderous intent (enough to kill a Hive-mate) as a result of one of his kind trying to kill her. The idea of something equally bad happening by attempting to telepathically communicate had stopped him.

Well... fuck it, I guess. I can't bloody do that, can I? She's gone all twitchy, and there's no real way that I can think of to have her find a way off of Guardian-625. And then take her with me. I suppose I'll just have to suck it up and try, he thought.

Ryus began making his way toward the apartment, feet hitting the carpet a bit more forcefully than was necessary.

He stopped in front of the door and dropped the first-aid kit and apples on either side of the doorframe. He stood and reached for the handle.

Now it's time to really say "hello"..., he thought.


Cliffhangar! Wheee! Hurrah!

...

I'll get to work and make the next chapter.