"Amazing...What I want to know is how the hell that thing got inside him." He glanced at the others. No one suspected him. Why should they? He was barely five foot five, geeky, and socially inept. What could he possible have to hide? Those fools. He'd dealt with people like them since childhood. The jocks, the popular kids, they all made fun of him. Barnett and Jenkins weren't any different from the assholes that had tormented Lyle when he was in high school. Even though Barnett didn't say much, Lyle knew he was thinking it. He was thinking about how much of a bitch Lyle was. That's what they all called him in school. Momma's bitch. Little bitch. Barnett would get what was coming to him. So would Jenkins. Jenkins, the big shot commander. Lyle had seen turds that could better lead a squad. Jenkins was a pretty boy with a bad attitude that was going to his ass killed.
"I don't give a damn how it got in there. Our orders are to secure the site and wait for back up." Jenkins said pompously. The idiot probably didn't even know what pompous meant.
Lyle gritted his teeth and forced a smile as he stood up. "Yes, sir." He glanced at Barnett and could have sworn the bastard was staring at him and looked away just as Lyle looked at him. Bastard. He was probably laughing inside.
"Lyle, Barnett, set up flares at the forest's edge to keep curious animals out of our way. Creed, you and me are going to check out the ship. And you," Jenkins said to the burly man with wild hair, "you sit your ass down and don't move." Always barking orders.
As everyone set out to do their duties, Lyle approached Jenkins. "Sir, don't you think I should inspect the craft? I mean, I am the science and tech guy."
Jenkins looked like he was considering it. "You really want to go in there with Creed?"
Lyle looked over at the large, muscular, hairy mutant. Creed licked his lips and laughed when Lyle shuddered. Lyle turned back to Jenkins. "Sir, this is the first alien craft to ever land in the United States. It travelled millions of light years through space to come here, for whatever reason. We are talking about first contact with an alien race. I would go in there with Charles Manson."
Lyle was outdoing himself. This wasn't the first alien craft to land in America. The Yautja had been coming here for millenia. Recently they had initiated peaceful contact with the United States government. At least, a certain group of Yautja had. It was quite fascinating to learn their culture and history. Of course, the Yautja couldn't speak English. Lyle and his fellow scientists had commissioned mutant psychics to communicate with them. It seemed to be the only way of intelligent exchange of information. Lyle wasn't sure why the Yautja had decided to interact with humans after millenia of hunting them for sport. Perhaps they had some hidden agenda.
In any case, the Hunters had scheduled a meeting to exchange technology for certain Earth animals. Tigers, Gorillas, et cetera. Lyle still understand why. They could simply take what they wanted and the humans would never know. He wasn't about to decline weaponery and technology that was ages beyond anything humans had ever dreamed of. The meet was supposed to happen today. Something caused the Yautja ship to crash and now the government was panicking. Would the aliens take this as an act of agression, even though the humans had not caused the wreck? There was much they didn't know about the Yautja and how they thought. There was also fear of some kind of infection that the Yautja had never fully elaborated on.
It seemed that the infection was whatever the hell had busted out of the tubby man's chest. Oh well. How dangerous could it be?
He was quite pleased with his deceptive skills.
Jenkins pointed at the dead Yautja. "And the first contact has gone so well thus far. Fine. I'll stay out here and watch our new friend." He motioned to the burly man.
It was surprising that the man had been able to kill the Yautja warrior so easily. From the way it was eviscerated, Lyle figured that the guy must have had some kind of blade on him. Perhaps the Yautja was a youngling, not yet trained for battle. The man was lucky to have bested it.
"Yes, sir. Thank you sir."
Creed appeared next to Lyle. The mutant creeped Lyle out. "Looks like we're partners, Runt. Come on, let's go poke around in the space ship."
"Right." Lyle set off toward the ship. Creed followed.
"And don't kill Lyle, for Chrissake!" Jenkins called to Creed.