Chapter 6

Daniel and the humanoid were first to arrive at the scene. The humanoid clicked in defiance as the serpent reared its head and looked at them. Daniel looked at himself. How stupid he had been? He had run off without any protective weapon. He decided to stand behind the humanoid. The serpent lunged and the humanoid grabbed it and through it down the hall. Daniel ran over to the fallen humanoid. It had to have some sort of working weapon. Then he noticed it. It was a cylinder with a weird kind of writing on it. It was only a single character, but it was strange none the less. He picked it up and rubbed his fingers over the writing. It glowed white for a moment and then stopped. The cylinder extended at both ends. Both ends were very sharp. The spear was pretty light weight, but it looked like it wouldn't break easily. He looked up to see the serpent getting to its feet. Daniel looked further down the hall to see Jordan and the new girl rear around a corner and quickly jump behind it as they saw the serpent. Jordan disappeared for a moment and then reappeared. He pumped the shotgun and took aim.

The barrel flared and the serpent began flailing around. It had a large hole in its hind left leg. The familiar blood sprayed the floor and made it burn. Daniel didn't know how to use the weapon he was wielding but he'd try. The pain in his hand was excruciating. He resisted the burning and the pain. If he let his guard down for a moment, he knew what the serpent would do. Several moments later it regained it footing. The humanoid drew the same cylinder and touched the same writing. It too lengthened into a spear. The serpent looked around. It knew it was outnumbered, but it planned to take its mortal enemy with it. It lunged and swung its claws. They scratched against the metal face of the humanoid leaving great long scratches down one side. The humanoid thrusted his spear into the serpents head and watched it squirm around. Daniel raised his spear too and plunged it into the serpent. The humanoid looked at him in wonder. Jordan walked over and pumped the shotgun. The empty shell flew out.

He aimed at the center of the serpent and fired again. It took several moments for the serpent to stop squirming. Daniel pulled out his spear and saw that the point had melted. So had the end to the humanoids spear. Daniel turned to it.

"Who and what are you?" The creature removed two small cords that visible oxygen steamed from for a few moments. It removed the metal that covered its face. The sight made Daniel and Jordan yelp in surprise. The girl that was approaching had passed out on her to them. It had grey-green skin and four clicking mandibles. In the middle of the mandibles was a mouth. Daniel almost yelled in terror when it spoke the same language as him. Its voice was deep.

"I am Man'l. A come from a clan called the Predators."

"Well what are you doing here?"

"I am here to prove my hunting skills," he said looking at the serpent that they had just killed.

"Well what are they?"

"We do not know their real names so we call them Aliens. There are many types to hunt. We brought them here to hunt to prove ourselves."

"Okay, then why are you helping us? If you're hunting them, why aren't you hunting us too?" The creature laughed a throaty laughed and saw they were not kidding. It stopped laughing and answered their question.

"You are hunters too aren't you? I saw you kill that alien without effort." Daniel and Jordan looked at one another. The only thing keeping them alive was the fact that they had killed an alien and he thought they were hunters. They didn't mind as long as they kept living. Man'l then looked to the passed out girl. "Is she one of your humans mate?" Daniel snorted. They used mate as a term for wife. Daniel shook his head. So did Jordan. "Then why keep her? Wouldn't she be in the way of hunting or escaping?"

Daniel tried to think. These Predators were obviously a race of hunters. All of them.

"She's part of our clan," Jordan said. Mant'l nodded his head to show he understood. Daniel began thinking. Mant'l would become a valuable team member if they were to kill off these aliens. He needed to ask.

"Mant'l." The predator looked his way. "Would you help destroy these things?" Daniel looked at the predator who looked back. It took a while but Mant'l nodded his head. Daniel was happy. "Well then first priority is to get us some weapons."

"Hand me your spear," Mant'l said. Daniel didn't see why, he only had one good end. As soon as he killed another alien that end would melt too. Mant'l picked the aliens tale blades that were lying on the floor. He separated them and tied one on to both spears. He handed it back to Daniel. Mant'l pulled out his knife and began to remove the alien's head. The stench made Daniel want to vomit. To his surprise, Mant'l stuck it to the end of Daniel's spear that hadn't been repaired. "It is your trophy. Show it off with pride."

"Oh I'll show it off alright. I'll show it off to those damned aliens and whatever's giving birth to them." The predator nodded and spoke again.

"If we can get to my last two friends, we can go in at full force."

"Your last two? How many did you lose?"

In her chamber the Queen roared in satisfaction. Two predators were mounted in the mall. They were covered in what looked like a hard organic substance. Slowly they stirred. There metal masks had been removed. They clicked their mandibles in anger. They had been brought to the Queens chamber. One thing remained in their heads though, why? It wasn't like them to just drag their prey from the upper world to their chambers. One struggled to reach his gauntlet. He managed to flip it open and press a button. It activated a homing beacon that all his clan would be able to pick up. The predator looked at his comrade. He noticed his comrade was bleeding from the neck, but still breathing. They had been in an intense battle against several aliens when they all just poured out of their hole. He didn't like the feeling he had one bit. Then he roared in pain. Something inside of him was ripping and tearing. He knew what was happening and felt disgraced. His prey had placed one of their ugly little children in him. Yet this one was stronger. It was tearing through everything. Then out it burst. The predator had never seen anything like it. It seemed too mixed of alien and predator. He had heard rumors about these. It was a Predalien. The most dangerous kind of alien type there was. He watched as it dropped out and another burst from his friend. His last sight before he died was seeing the two scurry up the small tunnel and into the real world.

Daniel's gauntlet began beeping as well as the predators. Mant'l looked at it. Daniel opened his and the L.E.D.'s were alight in a language that Daniel couldn't understand.

"It's Resul. He set off his tracker. Either something bad has happened or someone's playing with his gauntlet." Mant'l looked at Daniel. A shiver was sent up his spine as Mant'l cursed in a roar of clicks and noise. Daniel guessed it was his language. Daniel had a feeling he knew why the tracking device had gone off. Resul had probably been in there nest. The same message scrolled over and over again. Daniel shut the gauntlet and looked at Mant'l.

"It's now or never Mant'l. We can't wait for your comrades forever." Mant'l looked at him. No not at him. Behind him. Daniel turned. They were distorted figures, but Daniel knew what they were. There bodies shimmered with blue energy as they turned off their camouflage. Mant'l put his mask back on. The two predators looked at Daniel and his spear. They noticed the aliens head on the bottom end of the spear and did nothing. They looked at Jordan and clicked in defiance. Mant'l stepped in front of his two comrades and began to talk to them. Jordan and Daniel proceeded over to the girl. She had blonde hair and blue eyes. She was about Jordan's size and weight. She looked younger though. Probably around the age of thirteen. She slowly stirred.

"Not to fast now," Jordan said. "You don't need to black out first thing." The girl looked at the two and then at Daniel spear. She screamed and looked away. Daniel sighed.

"I'm going to see Mant'l. Maybe he talked his comrades into helping us." Jordan nodded and Daniel walked away. All he heard was the girl's name. Her name was Karen. Daniel stood next to Mant'l. "So what's the verdict?"

"Verdict?" Mant'l asked confused.

"I mean what's their answer." The other two predators looked at him as he said their. Mant'l nodded to show that he understood.

"It is against there pride to help humans, but they will help you, not your friend. They recognize you as a hunter for your trophy, but your friend is just a bug in a big world." Daniel nodded.

"A simple yes would've done, but alright."

"But they said we must hurry. The ship is coming back to get us on a fresh moon." Daniel guessed he meant the new moon. That was alright. It was only about an hours walk to the school. Daniel walked over to Jordan and Karen. Karen turned away at the sight of the aliens head.

"They'll help us, but we need to get her a weapon." Jordan grinned.

"That's easy. I'll get that machine gun the deputy was using." Jordan ran off and returned a few moments later, handing Karen the gun. "These ugly sons of a bitches won't know what hit them."