Jessica Martin looked up from her novel. The rustling from her friends' tent had gotten louder in the last few minutes, along with the occasional, passionate moan. Carla and Greg were clearly going at it… again. Jessica rolled her eyes, put the book aside, and tied her boots back onto her feet. There was no way she was going to stay 10 feet away from them while they made love.
Taking her flashlight and survival knife with her, she left the camp site at a brisk walk. Greg would surely be disappointed, not that she cared. She was now positive that he'd only invited her along in the hopes she would "get curious" and join them. The two of them had been having sex 3 times a day on this trip, and Jessica had lost what remained of her patience. 2 weeks in the mountains had sounded fun, even as a third-wheel, but the routine had gotten old. And they weren't even halfway through the trip.
The sun was just disappearing behind the peaks to the West. She headed down to the crossroads, and up one of the mountain trails they'd yet to explore. This one had a switchback farther up, with a rock wall that could be ascended instead, bypassing the miles of trail. But Jessica wasn't about to try the wall, alone in the dark. She just wanted to be away from the love-birds for a while, until they finished and fell asleep.
She heard a wolf howl echo from the North, but it sounded pretty far off. Still, she gripped her knife in its sheath. Her uncle had given it to her two months ago, for her 21st birthday. He'd even shown her the two most basic grips, one for attacking and one for defending, telling her to always keep it in her dominate hand. Unfortunately, he'd left for Iraq before teaching her how to truly fight with it, so that was the extent of her knife-wielding knowledge. If a wolf, or other predator, did attack her, all she could do was stab, since any kind of slicing was more likely to cause her grip to fail than do any damage.
She'd hate to have to do that, though. Wolves just followed their instincts. It wasn't like they had an agenda… unlike Greg. Jessica paused halfway up the 1st switchback. "Maybe I should head back," she thought, "just in case. They might come out of their tent and wonder where I've gone." She looked toward their camp site. From here, she couldn't make out their fire, and the rapidly fading sun would reduce her visible landmarks. But no, she was confident she could remain on the path, even in the dark. As if to affirm her decision, the wolf howled again, and she was certain it sounded more distant than before.
She switched on the flashlight, a cheap plastic one she'd had for years. But it still worked, and that was all that mattered. The sun had dwindled enough that it was necessary to keep from tripping on the occasional rock in the trail. Within a few minutes, she'd reached a small plateau, where the trail was more or less level for 100 yards before climbing another winding switchback to the summit. She was still 2 miles from the top, due to the nature of the trail.
*Crack* Ahead of her, to the right she heard a branch break, and she ducked down and backed up to a tree on the left of the trail, searching for the source. "Dear God," she thought, "I hope the wolf didn't double back on me." She could see anything, so she moved to another vantage point, protecting her back against another tree. Then, she heard something rustling in the trees, and… a mountain goat jumped up onto a cliff on the far side, bounding away from her. She couldn't help but laugh at herself.
Maybe heading back was the best idea, after all, as she was clearly getting jumpy. She turned and walked back towards the 1st switchback, passing between the small trees. But in the middle of three of them, the ground suddenly gave way beneath her, opening up to a cave or sinkhole under her feet. She fell for less than a second, but it felt like forever before her feet touched the bottom. She instinctively rolled, but still managed to catch her ankle on a rock, twisting it, and then scraping her shoulder on another. She succeeded in protecting her head, though, throwing her arms up to cradle herself as she rolled.
The ground in the cave, or whatever it was, wasn't level, so it took a couple seconds to come to a stop. She lay there, breathing heavily, trying to focus. She'd dropped the flashlight when she'd been rolling, but for now she wasn't concerned with light. She slowly sat up, feeling the hard, and sometimes sharp, rocks around her before putting any weight on her hands. Running her hands over her limbs, they came away sticky, with blood, from the scrapes on her shoulders. Rolling had injured her arms, and both of her legs were cut up pretty good as well. But nothing seemed to be gushing, and her head was uninjured. Scrapes and bruises were much preferred to what could have happened.
Finishing her self-assessment, she finally looked around for the flashlight. It was a few dozen feet away, pointing away from her, towards a flat rock wall… which was filled with strange writing, blocky almost-letters. She gingerly made her way over to the light, trying to keep weight off her rolled ankle. Closer to the writing, she could see that they almost resembled building blocks, and they were carved into the rock. The wall was almost 10 feet wide and at least twice that high, and full of the writing. She picked of the flashlight, thanking the heavens that it hadn't broken in the fall. Looking around with the beam, she could see the hole she'd fallen through. If she had fallen 3 feet to the left, she would have hit her head on the rocks when she started rolling.
She turned her attention back to the wall, shining the light up and down. Even to her untrained eye, it was clearly a language, with symbols reoccurring in a different order in what could only be words. She leaned in close, but stepped back quickly, as a section of the wall suddenly jutted out towards her. Jessica stared at it, her free hand grasping the knife. There was light coming from a hole in the middle of the protruding section. She stayed still for a few moments, before curiosity got the better of her. It wasn't an alien egg, that was for sure; this thing was technological… whatever it was.
Moving up close, she peered directly into the brightly lit hole, seeing lights of several colors… and then the thing telescoped towards her, with another part reaching behind her head, keeping her in place. "Oh shit!" she thought, "it is an alien egg, and I'm about to die!" The light intensified, and she heard a high-pitched tone, while still trying to free her head. 5 seconds later, it released her, but as soon as it did, the strength left her legs, and Jessica collapsed to the ground, unconscious.