Hunter: Captured

I awoke with swimming senses and a throbbing skull. Everything around me was blurry but I realized I wasn't outside. It seemed too quiet for the jungle and it smelled funny; like chemicals or something nasty like that. I blinked, trying to clear my vision. Something shadowy moved in front of my vision and I heard a voice.

"She's awake Dr. Allan."

Another voice of tenor quality answered, "Very good."

A bright light blazed through me eyes and I put up a hand to block it. As I did I at once realized my wrists were bound by a set of metallic cuffs with a metal bar between them that spread my wrists apart. My vision was clearing and forcefully I sat up.

"Easy Miss…easy. No one's going to hurt you." the tenor voice soothed.

I squinted and found the source of the voice. A man of about 6 feet and darkish skin stood before me in a white cloth jumpsuit of some kind. His hair was jet black and his eyes were a deep coppery brown. Not like Jake, but not a bad looking specimen. He was holding a plastic board and appeared to be inscribing something onto it. Beside him was a woman in the same white garb. She had mid-length blonde hair that looked nearly white. Her skin color was lighter than the man's and I stood taller than she did, even though she seemed older than I. Her green eyes were set behind a set of silver lined glasses giving her a distinguished look.

Then behind them in the metal and white room full of devices, trays, and cabinets were two guards who wore the same camouflage as Jake. But neither was he.

I hissed lightly at his comment, "You did that."

He smirked lightly, "Well, you were doing quite a number on my men. You killed five of them before we managed to quiet you down."

"Hit me." I muttered.

Again he smirked and then nodded his head, "My name is Dr. Allan. I'm head of this facility. This is my assistant Dr. Chaplin."

I briefly glanced at her. I hadn't seen a female of my species since very early childhood. She didn't seem very strong; her frame was frail but curvy.

His eyes moved around slowly, "And what would your name be?"

"Little Fighter." My eyes narrowed at them both and forcefully I rose from the padded table to perhaps intimidate them into answering the hundred questions buzzing in my mind. However, my feet were bound as well, limiting my mobility.

"Where my friends?!" I demanded harshly clenching my hands into fists.

Dr. Allan's eyes lit up and he said, "Your friends…" He paused.

I clicked in frustration, something I had learned from my Predator kin. "TELL ME! NOW!"

"They are fine. Just sedated," the female explained in an unemotional voice.

"What means that?" I asked tersely.

Dr. Allan wrote some more, "It means they are sleeping. But they'll wake up soon."

I clinked my wrist cuffs untrustingly, "Let me see them."

"In time Little Fighter. We will need you soon enough." The man explained.

"Need me? For what?"

"You can speak their language can't you?" Dr. Allan inquired.

I nodded. "I raised by them."

His interest seemed perked, "Really? That's fascinating. Later we'll have to talk about that."

My eyes narrowed again, "No. No trust you. They kill you."

"Normally I wouldn't doubt that, considering they killed nearly fifteen of my men even though they couldn't see them." the dark skinned man said with a hint of malice in his tone.

"You make suits?" I asked.

"Those suits are Dr. Chaplin's creation. They shield all body heat and the masks locate the pheromone signatures put off by your friends. In short, we turned the tables. We could see them…they couldn't see us. I created the mechanisms that deactivated their camouflage. It leveled the playing field even more." He explained almost in excitement.

My head turned. His speech was very complicated, "How you know?"

He leaned toward me, "Their kind have been here before; killing men by the dozens in their wake. We initially thought they hunted alone. But obviously they hunt in groups too. Many men like me have tried and failed to capture one…until now…and we've managed to catch three!"

I didn't like his tone or his words. He made my friends sound like objects rather than living beings. "Why? What you want with my friends?"

"Simple curiosity my dear. All my life I've sought out these hunters and now my questions will be answered. I want to know everything about them: their anatomy, their language, their thinking, and of course their technology."

My eyes widened. That wasn't good. There were some weapons and technologies Hunter and the others used that even I wasn't allowed to mess with…EVER! Now these humans undoubtedly possessed those objects! What could that mean for my friends and all Predators if their technology was picked apart and mimicked by their prospective prey?

I hissed making my foot restraints that were attached to the table go taut. "You BASTARD! You have no honor!"

He laughed lightly at my outrage, "You are overreacting Little Fighter. We simply wish to understand them better."

"Not believe you. Let me see them NOW!" I shouted.

The woman doctor whispered something to Dr. Allan and he nodded, "I believe one of your friends is coming around. If you can control yourself we will escort you to him."

My body became less tense, but my senses were peaked with alert. I didn't trust these Oomans. It made me sick that I was associated with such a selfish, dishonorable species.

I nodded in reluctant consent. Dr. Allan made a motion with his hand and the two armed men guarding the door came and stood on either side of me. One of them kept the gun trained near me while the other unlocked my foot restraints from the wall. I could've attacked but I thought…where would that get me? Even if I killed every single one of them what hope would I have of finding my friends and a way out of this place? No…don't attack. There will be a time to fight and now wasn't it.

Slowly I moved forward, wrists still bound and the two soldiers took hold of my arms, leading me out of the room and out into a long bright hallway. I blotted out the details but memorized the passageways as we turned and weaved down the corridor. We passed through many mechanical doors. Dr. Allan had to open each door with a plastic card he kept close to him. But then the hall transformed itself into a low lit, prison-like chamber that seemed heavily fortified and full of devices. Dr. Allan touched a panel with his hand and it lit up, opening the door with a hiss of vapor. Air locks. Just like on the ship and the ones the Predators used to attach their masks and shoulder canons. The guards pulled me along until we came to a huge, cavernous room with a rounded upper ceiling that resembled the one on the ship except it was much bigger. Bordering the entire room were electronic devices and panels with switches, buttons, and lights of all sizes and colors. But the center of the room held my focus. There were three separated, transparent, room sized cells and each held one of the Predators! Positioned in a kind of circle, the triple cells did not touch but could be viewed at all angles other than the floor. Men and women in the same white garb as the doctors stood around the cells monitoring screens and watching the hunters within.

Hunter was in the cell closest to me but he appeared to still be unconscious as he lay silently on his back on the smooth floor of the cell. His weapons and some of his armor had been stripped from his body and they even took his mask! He only had his mesh body suit, loincloth, and belt. My eyes darted about the room quickly to try and find the missing articles but I could see nothing. Fire Blood; still unconscious as well; was in the cell to Hunter's left. He lay on his side breathing steadily his barreled chest rising and falling. They're alive. I thought they'd been poisoned by those darts or perhaps killed.

At last the guards led me to the third cell and I saw Garv slowly trying to get up inside. His body shook with weakness, probably derived from the sedative. Shaking his dreadlocks he blinked and flexed his mandibles as if he were trying to regain his bearings. Forcefully I shoved the guard holding my arm and rushed to the clear cell wall. No one tried to stop me, they just watched.

I tapped the glass-like wall and shouted, "Garv!"

His head snapped up and his yellow eyes squinted at me before his vision cleared, "Little Fighter?"

He staggered forward, spanning his arms to keep his balance. Those drugs must've packed quite a punch to knock him out and disorient him like that. Finally he made it to the wall and leaned heavily against it. He looked down at me clicking softly.

I put my hands to the wall, "Garv are you alright?"

He clicked a yes and suddenly noticed the manacles binding my wrists. A harsh look crossed his features and his eyes narrowed, "What have they done to you? Have they hurt you?"

"Not badly. They hit my head and knocked me out." I admitted.

His lower mandibles flared slightly and he hissed, "They will all die! I will see to that."

I smiled a little. His protectiveness for me definitely showed. Even in such a dire situation he cared for me. "I know how you feel. But there are too many and I don't know how we're going to escape."

At length Garv brought his wrists up and growled deeply cursing, "My weapons! What have they done with them! They will ALL DIE! By my honor I will rip their guts out through their mouths!"

Quickly I explained the situation to Garv and he listened in between oaths and curses of death and destruction upon our captors. "I don't know what to do Garv! I want to get you out of here but I don't know how."

He knelt before me which made our heights about even. Lightly he put one of his mammoth clawed hands to the wall where mine was and rattled gently, "We don't have much time Little Fighter. If Algar and the others return to the ship and we don't respond or return they will leave."

"They can do that?" I asked in shock.

"Yes. Warriors die on hunts all the time—even Ooman hunts. The others are supposed to leave if they receive no word or the hunters do not come back. We have to get out of here or we will be stranded on this planet!" he explained.

I don't know why I said it—I'd never uttered the words before out loud. "I'm scared Garv."

He blinked, "That doesn't sound like you."

I shook my head almost to the point of shameful tears, "I am. I don't want anything to happen to you or the others!"

Very slowly he put his face closer to the barrier and extended his right lower mandible, stroking the tusk of it across the surface of the wall where my cheek was. "Do not fear for me Little Fighter. Be strong. You are strong. I've seen it in you. I will protect you."

I cried quietly until I heard Dr. Allan order the guards to return me to my quarters. I struggled as the two men hauled me up and took me away. Garv raised Hell, roaring and cursing them as he threw his body into the barrier and smashed his iron fists against it. But even his great strength didn't have the slightest bit of effect on the wall. It was like transparent steel; nearly unbreakable. Shrieking his fury at the men and the wall my Predator friend could do nothing to stop them. We had to think of a way to escape no matter what. But how?