Chapter: 36 - Xyl

Thank you everyone for all the kind reviews - it means a lot and helps me feel motivated :) As I have a few days off work on leave, I'm going to post another load of chapters together, so enjoy...

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Xyl climbed back up the last flight of stairs to stand outside the barricaded door. She listened closely again. There had been some loud arguing for some time, but it appeared to have quietened down now. She estimated that at least half the camp had hidden in the top layers of this vessel and from the echoing of their voices through the metal they were packed in tightly together, which was good as she wanted them nervous.

She had decided it would be worth keeping several of the camp members alive as the systems of the vessel were more complicated than she had first thought. It had been easy enough to shut down their power from the lower level, but further understanding would take time. Though she could understand the camp members when they spoke, she could not read their written language on the controls. She would need some of them and in particular she hoped to save the two males she had seen behind the barricade. She had checked the dead on the lower levels as she had stepped over the bodies and none of them had been the two males, which meant they were still alive. She also suspected one of them had been the male she had talked with through the door; perhaps the stocky pale one as the voice had been very resonance. But, that resonant voice had not been heard through the door for some time.

"Leader." She called through the door.

There was a pause and she could make out some hushed voices. "He does not wish to speak with you further." A different male answered her.

"I will speak to him now." Xyl commanded. She did not like the nervous edge to new the male's voice.

There was another series of whispering. "There has been a change of leadership in here. We would like to discuss your previous offer." The male replied.

Xyl narrowed her eyes at the door as she thought for a moment. She turned and walked back down the stairs. They had found a cutting torch on a lower level and she turned to the hunter holding it. "Cut it open." She commanded before she carried on down to the next level. Behind her she heard the snap and hiss of the torch and the abrupt screaming of the people above as the hunter began to cut through the door.

Her strongest hunter was waiting for her. Xyl paused beside him ignoring the noises from upstairs. "The leader isn't up there anymore. They are escaping." She strode down the stairs contemplating the ship around her.

"How could they escape?" The hunter asked her.

"There must be another way out of the ship." She pondered out loud.

"Surely all of them would be escaping from upstairs if that were so."

Xyl ignored his words. "Did you check all of the lower levels? Is there another way out of the ship from below ground?" She asked him.

"No. I walked around the lower levels myself. The ship was torn into several parts and they are no longer connected." He said as he trailed along behind her.

"Have the lower levels checked again." She ordered him.

"How would they get down to the lower levels?" He asked. It was a foolish question and she considered telling him so, but refrained as she was too busy thinking.

"It does not matter how only that they are attempting it." She said impatiently as she quickened her step down to the right level and then out along a corridor and out into the open. Fires were still burning; hunters were throwing anything they could find into the flames whilst others battled each other. Her and Klauu's hunters were at odds, but she did not mind for once the night was over she would be left with the strongest.

She turned to look up at the vessel standing over them. "Gather groups together and have them patrol the outside perimeter of the ship." She commanded as she looked down at the loose dirt around the hull where it was wedged into the ground. "We need only to wait for them to emerge."

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TBC