Chapter 35: All Good Things...
One of the perks of his vision being based on pheromones, was that he could tell what people were feeling, even if they could physically hide it well. The yellow and black mist that swirled around the tiny human that was now grasped in Amun's clawed hand, gave away his true feelings. On the surface, Richard showed no sign that he was afraid, even being brave enough to look at the king and smile. A tough thing to do when he was a few feet away from a maw full of teeth. However, Amun knew the man was scared.
Amun wanted nothing more that to bite the man's head off, to tear him apart piece by piece and then discard the shards into the mud of the jungle. A fitting end for such a man. No, not a man, that would mean that he was worthy of his life. This was a monster with a smile. He deserved nothing less than to die with Amun's teeth buried into his chest.
However, the human side of Amun hesitated. He hated killing people enough and had his fill of murder from all the fighting that day. So he waited, the man firmly in his grasp, to see what he would do. For a long moment the two just looked to one another. In the end, it was the scientist who spoke first.
"Well...now what? I'm still breathing which tells me that you either need something from me, or you are playing with your food. As to which one it is, I would rather you hurry up and pick one." His gaze did not break from Amun as he talked, perhaps to try an intimidate the king, but again, Amun knew his true feelings. "Well?" The man urged.
Amun took a moment to conceder his actual options. He could just kill the man, he only hoped that the pain from the past would die with him. Or was there some way to guarantee that his family would be safe from now on? Perhaps a deal could be made. Amun realized that if he let the man go, and even if he promised to leave him and Jolene alone, there was nothing stopping him from simply making more xenomorphs. He had created a queen from Jolene's DNA, one more would probably be a cake walk. No, Amun had to bring this to an end, he needed to stop this from continuing.
"Come, my daughters, let us go back to the others." The King told his hive as he turned back towards the compound. He wanted to make sure Jolene was present in this discussion, as well as Jenna and Charles.
"Charles...o no." Amun just realized, Charles did not know about Abby. The king let out a long sigh, his shoulders slumping.
"Father?" Bobby asked as she came to walk beside him.
" Bobby...how many..." He did not need to explain further. Bobby hesitated at first, then realized that there was no good way to tell him.
"Twenty five. Five from our hive, the rest from Jolene's. They...they did not know how to hunt." Amun held back his sadness, he would grief from his daughters later. However, he had not realized that he had clenched his first until Richard let out a yell of pain. Amun relaxed a bit before he popped the man clean in half. "Father..." Bobby asked with concern in her voice. Amun looked to his first born and sent her a mental smile.
"Come, my daughter." Amun said as he began his walk again.
The king, and the rest of the aliens that followed him, walked back into the compound and past the carnage that had come to a close. There were bodies of soldiers, city folk and alien, all covered in mud and blood. It hurt Amun to look upon the battle field and realize that he had once again brought death to more people of this world. He hated it so much.
He looked over to see Alex organizing the locals, telling them something before a group of them took off to take care of the task. Alex shot a look to the king and gave a slight nod before heading towards a different group of people who approached her. She was definitely a leader, and cared for her people. It was good to see.
Amun turned his attention to the large group of Xenomorphs that now huddled around a Queen. One that was gently looking after them one by one. A few aliens sprinted past Amun to go and join their mother and their sisters. Amun watched as a few of the aliens around the queen turned and sprinted towards him. He recognized his hive's colors and let out a low thrum to greet his daughters. As he did, he stumbled a bit, his legs becoming a bit week.
Suddenly, Amun was getting light headed and losing focus, watching as the world became fuzzy. He didn't even notice as he dropped Richard to the ground as his hands lost all strength in them. His legs were having trouble keeping his large body upright and stumbled to his right.
"AMUN!" He heard the voice of Jolene call to him and his body impacted the ground hard.
Something was very wrong.
As Amun lay in the mud, his breathing becoming harder and harder to muster, he started to realize the amount of pain the his adrenaline had been hiding. His crown began to burn, there were parts of his rib cage that also seared with pain. The tanks had done more damage to him then he had realized, and he had lost too much blood. He heard the muffled sound of Jolene's footsteps as she approached, his vision getting worst as the seconds went by.
"Jolene...I...I don't feel right." He told her as she came to his side and brought her face close to his. He could tell that she was afraid as she frantically looked over his body.
"F...F...fix h-his...wounds!" She struggled to said, her stutter getting worst as her fear flooded her mind. Amun could feel the weight of her daughters as they started to crawl onto his body and began to patch the holes that he had received a short while ago. They quickly began to fill his wounds with their bio-resin, but Amun felt that it might be too late for that. His breathing becoming even harder to manage.
"Jolene." The thought came out as nothing more than a whisper. The queen quickly brought her face back to his. She placed her large hands upon his cheeks.
"I'm...here. A-Amun...please...no."
"Keep them safe, please. My hive, they will need someone to guide them." His words were quiet and hard to produce. Jolene started to panic, letting out a loud cry.
"No...please..no! Don't...don't go!" Amun placed a hand upon her face to try and comfort the queen.
"Jolene, it's alright, everything will...be alright. You are...free now." His vision began to narrow, the world going dark.
"NOOOO!" He heard her scream as his mind slipped away into nothingness.
