HOTD: Aliens vs Predator
Chapter 4
Busujima Saeko and Kumuro Takashi had trembling eyes, staring into the mask that was staring back at them. The humanoid's mask looked like a mix of metal and stone, sleek eyes gazing into Saeko and Takashi's souls. Blood was pooling into their heads. The humanoid turned to Takashi, tilting the boy's head so he could look at his cheek, and then other side. The hunter then looked at Saeko, leaning in to scan her face. He let out a purring snarl before releasing his grip on them.
Takashi and Saeko plopped onto the floor, painfully gasping for air while rubbing their necks. The hunter sizzled in electricity, camouflaging into the hallway. Saeko's blurry vision was clearing up, she could see the hunter's hulking figure leaving them.
"S-Senpai." Takashi coughed out.
"Kumoro-kun." She wheezed.
"You alright?"
"Just about." Saeko nodded.
Takashi pushed himself up to his feet, the stale and dry air tingled his nose wrong. Takashi held his hand out to Saeko which she took and pulled herself up.
"Why in god's name would you go to that thing?" Takashi panted.
Saeko made a couple of blinks to clear her vision. "Komuro-kun, that thing knows this ship and the way out of here."
"Are you out of y-" Takashi stopped himself before he insulted Saeko, "Busujima-senpai, that thing is not going to help us."
"Maybe not. But it didn't kill us, it killed the other serpent things. At the very least, that thing is our best chance of staying alive, and we don't have any other ideas on how to get out."
Takashi hated this plan; going after that giant hunter thing. But he hated that they did not have any other solution even more. Unless they had some form of point of reference, they could very well stumble upon another clutch of those leathery eggs. Takashi and Saeko were in agreement, it was a case of something bad or something worse. If they were going to survive, they needed that hunter around to kill those other serpents at least.
"Shit," Takashi groaned under his breath, "Where is it now?"
They both heard the faint footsteps off in the distance, the hunter was leaving them.
"No, no…" Saeko sucked in a deep breath and went along her way. "Got to find that thing."
Somewhere else in the ship, another hive was busy with terror. Four people were strung up to a wall with the same black-olive webbings. Shido Koichi stirred awake, amidst the dry heat, and beads of sweat rolled down his back. He flicked his fringe off his forehead, miraculously he still had his glasses on. His vision started to clear and he saw what was around him.
He was in a hive, slimy webbings were etched all over, Koichi's arms and legs were strapped down by them. By his right was one of the soldiers, hived up like him. There was, however, something attached to his face. A large bony spider-scorpion creature, hugging his face with its legs encased around his head and tail wrapped around his neck. On his left was another soldier, this time a medic. His urban camo uniform was soaked in slime and blood. His face hung down and his skin was pale. Koichi's core went heavy when he trailed down the medic to see the hole in his chest, rib bones were bent outwards and bits of flesh dripped down. There were also a spider-scorpion facehugger and an opened leathery egg by the medic's feet. Koichi's eyes were trembling, but then he spotted the pistol holstered in the medic's belt.
The sound of sloshing slime got Koichi's attention. In front of the teacher was another leathery egg, peeling itself open. He could see the bony legs moving about in the egg. Koichi's heart hammered faster than ever in his life.
"Urrrrghhhh! Shit!" Koichi's throat strained as he wrenched his arm out, stretching far to reach for the medic's pistol. He managed to hook his finger on the trigger guard, desperately pulling the gun out of the holster. The teacher wrung the gun back and forth, frantically freeing the weapon. The facehugger was inching itself out of its egg, legs spreading out ready to launch. With one last tug, Koichi yanked the pistol out of the holster and held it in his hands.
Koichi flipped the safety in the pistol, the facehugger lunged out of the egg, and the teacher took aim. With a flash of the muzzle, a bang echoed in the hive. Koichi's ear rang from the gunshot, but the facehugger laid on the floor with a hole in its centre and yellow liquid oozed out from the wound. Koichi stared at the flinching facehugger for a second before popping three more rounds. The scent of gunpowder filled the room, but the olive spider-scorpion was still and filled with bullet wounds.
Koichi sucked in air through his clenched teeth, before he took his surroundings. The hive walls dripped in slime, webbings and resin stretched everywhere. The teacher reached for his other arm and his legs. He tore the restraints off and stumbled away from the wall. He quickly checked himself. Aside from the bruise on his forehead and fatigue, he was relatively fine.
I…I got to…I got to get out of here…Koichi thought.
Another sound got his attention, it was a moaning whimper. He turned to the source of the sound, it was a second-year kendo student girl, Suzumoto Ayumi. She was one of the girls that gossiped with Saeko on the way to the training camp. Her short brown hair was damp, her school uniform soaked in sweat. She stirred awake and her breathing was ragged. She tried pulling her arms free but they were bound by the resins in the hive. To top it off, another alien egg was placed by her feet.
A bead of tear rolled down her eye, she frantically shook her body about to free herself to no avail. She sighted Shido Koichi, standing there and looking at her with a wearied face. Relief came to her, seeing a teacher with her.
"Shido-sensei." Ayumi called out, "Help me. Please, get me out of this."
The teacher made eye contact with the girl, and the egg before Ayumi started peeling itself open on the top. The facehugger wriggled about inside, and the girl's heart was pumping in fright.
"Shido-sensei." Ayumi called again. "Please, I'm stuck. Help me."
"Oh? Is that so?" Koichi said as glanced at the egg and the facehugger coming out, his face contorted with a snakelike grin. "Well, I guess that's it for you then."
"H-Huh?" Ayumi's eyes shrank, and the facehugger sat on top of the egg with its bony legs spread out, aiming for her face. Koichi turned and walked away from Ayumi.
"The world we've known till now has ended." Koichi proclaimed through that vile smirk of his, "You whom have no power, have no right to live on!"
Koichi stepped out of the hive and his feet landed on metallic flooring. His Five-Seven pistol sat firmly in his hands. The only source of illumination was the red lighting dotted the corridors. He felt a minuscule flow of air coming from the west side of the corridor.
If there is flowing air, that could be an exit. My way out, perhaps. He thought. Koichi made his decision, he took a left and trekked onwards, going against the air current to find the exit.
All the while, he had been ignoring the sobbing and wailing from Ayumi.
"Sensei!" Ayumi cried through the tears rolling down her eyes and snot down her nose. "Sensei! Come back! Help me! Please! Help me!"
The facehugger leaped, Ayumi screamed as the stem erected out of the creature's centre. It plunged its stem through Ayumi's mouth, the legs encase around her head, and the tail coiled around her neck. Facehugger tightened its hug on Ayumi's face.
"Mmmmm! Mmm! Mmm…" Ayumi's muffled screaming was soon reduced to silence.
Elsewhere in the ship, Takashi and Saeko were trying to pick the trail on that humanoid hunter again. In the slim chance to ride in that hunter's wake to get out alive, they have little choice but to take it. The ship's corridors were a maze. Saeko trekked onwards with Takashi by her side, the tension of the situation tightened them like a noose. The silence did not help with the tension. They hoped to hear the hunter. Or better yet, any sound from their schoolmates or teachers. Even a scream would mean they are still alive.
After a few minutes, the corridor split into a crossroads. The path on the left was blocked off by metallic chunks and debris. Takashi got ahead to the piled debris to see through the gaps. All he could see, however, was darkness. He took out his phone and turned on the flashlight. It did little to help unfortunately, as the obstructed path was still too dim.
"Dammit. Can't get through this."
Saeko got her phone out as well to check for any signal. She bit her lips in frustration when the screen showed no bars. She brought her attention to the other path, she could feel the faint flow of air on her face.
"Kumoro-kun." She whispered.
"Senpai?" Takashi turned to her.
"I think it's this way." Saeko said. They took a right and crept through. The dim lighting was just as bad as absolute darkness, if not worse. It only created more shadows, and Takashi was dreading the moment when one of them would come alive and attack them. As Saeko took a step, she felt a squish of slime through her shoe. Saeko restrained herself reeling back in disgust. Lifting her leg, there was a string of liquid attached to the sole of her shoe and the floor.
"Ugh," Saeko groaned and dragged her shoe across the ground wiping the slime off.
Something in the distance got them to flinch in fright, the sounds of screeching and explosive bangs. Takashi inched to a turn in the corridor with Saeko behind him. There it was, the humanoid hunter, engaging with three more serpent aliens.
The first alien lunged at the humanoid from the ceiling. An azure blast from the canon resting on the humanoid's shoulder sent the alien careening back with a glowing hole through its chest. The second alien was crouched low on the floor, hissing at the hunter after the first alien was shot dead. The third alien, crawling on the wall, let out a snarl with the inner jaw protruding out.
The hunter flexed its wrist and the two serrated blades came out of the gauntlet. The second alien rushed at the hunter, only to get shot in the head by the hunter's canon. The final alien lunged at the hunter and swung its arm. The hunter snorted in defiance by the scratch on its chest armour, giving the final alien a hard backhand, and knocking it to the ground. The hunter took the chance, grabbing the serpent by the throat and stabbing the head. The hunter cleaved through the alien and chunks of serpent chitin were scattered around. The hunter scanned through the kills. Smoke rose from the bodies as the acid blood bled into the metal floor. With a rattling purr, the hunter snapped its head towards Takashi and Saeko.
Takashi and Saeko, peeking over the corner, laid eyes on the hunter. Takashi should have hidden himself from the hunter, but for some reason, he could not. The hunter stared back at them, the gaze lingered before the sleek eyes from the mask lit up a flash of bright green. The humanoid turned away, heading deeper down the path to continue the hunt.
Huddling behind the corner for a few seconds, Saeko started tailing the humanoid with Takashi following. They stuck close to the wall, avoiding the corpses of the slain serpents. They smelled even worse dead, the pungent stench struck Saeko's nose which forced her to bring her arm up covering her mouth.
"Ugh. Godammit." Takashi groaned, the foulness churned his guts as well. But they carried on.
After a minute, however, the hunter off in the far distance had electricity sizzling around it. The humanoid was camouflaging and its silhouette melted into the environment.
"Shit." Saeko cursed and trotted on with Takashi right behind her. Off in the far distance, the hunter was getting further ahead. Saeko could barely see the shimmer and the silhouette. In a blink, she lost sight of the humanoid.
"Oh no." Saeko dreaded, "No, no."
She picked up the pace to find the humanoid, their one means of killing those black things.
"Senpai," Takashi said behind his teeth, trying to catch up to her. Rushing through the darkness was too dangerous, even to find that small measure of safety.
There was a glint of silver up in the pitch-black ceiling. Takashi's face went pale, he saw the chrome fangs up above. One of the serpents had been hiding in the dark ceiling for any prey to arrive, and Saeko was the prey.
Takashi's irises shrank and his heart skipped a beat, he screamed out. "Senpai! No!"
Saeko's mistake was realized. She saw the ambushing serpent but could not get away in time. The serpent alien sprung from the ceiling, it pounced on Saeko knocking her down.
"Argh!" Saeko shrieked as her back struck the floor. Chitin hands pushed her head against the floor and the alien's leg pinned her torso down. "Ahhh!"
The claws dug into her scalp and broke the skin, and blood seeped from her head. The alien snarled into her face. It seemed this was not interested in capturing her to hive her up again. It seemed keener to kill her right there.
"Senpai!" Takashi cried out, he ran for Saeko. The alien's skeletal tail swung about, knocking Takashi off his feet. Takashi slammed into the wall, his brain rattled in his skull.
"Urgh!" Saeko's arms flung around in frantic desperation, her fingers brushed against something cold. Her hand gripped onto a chunk of metal debris.
"Raah!" Saeko swung the metal piece, striking the alien on its head. The serpent stumbled off her and let out a screech. Saeko rolled onto her stomach and got up onto one knee, panting her lungs out. The metal debris slipped out of her hand, and a trickle of blood rolled down the side of her temple.
Before the serpent could make any advancement, a spear was thrown and pierced the alien's cylindrical head. The extra-terrestrial creature slumped to the side, its head splintered into pieces from the long, thin, and gruesome spear.
A rattling purr later, and the hunter melted out of its camouflage beside Saeko. The humanoid sauntered over to the alien and plucked its spear free. It retracted with a mechanical hiss and the spear retracted from both ends.
Saeko picked herself up, as did Takashi. Both of them winced at the new injuries they sustained, and the hunter turned its attention to them.
"W-Were you…following me?" Saeko asked. Despite feeling winded, her tone was sharper than she had intended it to be.
"Senpai?" Takashi uttered. He did not think there was any way to communicate with the hunter. For all he knew, Saeko could have been insulting his mother.
Takashi and Saeko, now standing before the hunter, both felt incredibly small. The hunter was nearly eight feet tall with almost no fat appearing in the body. One hundred percent muscles. Definitely masculine looking. It- He had to have been watching them for some time if he was able to kill the alien in time. Saeko's heart pounded and adrenaline circulated through her.
The hunter stood there like a statue with a purring rattle. Saeko and the hunter stared at each other. His head tilted to the side before a voice echoed from the sinister mask.
"W-Were you…following me?" the hunter asked. It was Saeko's voice, baritone and mechanical.
Takashi and Saeko stepped back, they were not expecting a voice recording from the hunter's mask. It made Takashi realise; the hunter was not repeating what Saeko said, he was throwing the question back at her. The hunter knew they had been following him this whole time.
"You can understand us?" Takashi asked the humanoid, his head spinning at all the possibilities.
The gladiator hunter made a gruff noise before slowly dipping his head once. An exaggerated and slow nod. But a nod nevertheless.
Being the first two people in the world to make verbal communication with an extra-terrestrial being did little to comfort them.
"You knew we were following you." Saeko then said, almost sounding accusatory which was definitely not what she intended.
The hunter let out a snort, he extended his hand toward her and Saeko nearly flinched. Instead of an attack, Saeko felt the weight on her shoulder, before the hunter shoved her out of the way. The action caused Saeko to stagger.
"Senpai." Takashi quickly caught her in his arms, preventing her fall.
"Kumoro-kun." Saeko exhaled turning to see the hunter leaving again.
No. Not this time. Saeko thought.
"Hey! Come back!" she shouted and ran for the hunter.
The humanoid snarled and whirled around. Saeko shifted back to keep an arms-length away from him. Now Saeko was not quivering in doubt.
"We're going with you!" Saeko snapped. The humanoid made a guttural snort.
But then Takashi added through fumbling words "L-Look we can help. Or something. We…I…I can be bait. If you can give us weapons, we can help. O-Or at least, give her a weapon. She can fight."
Saeko turned to Takashi, finally noticing he had been putting her first in so many occasions. "Kumoro-kun."
The humanoid let out a rattling purr before playing back an audio clip of Takashi's voice, "Bait."
It was not what Takashi and Saeko hoped, but at least it meant that they could follow him.
"May I at least have a weapon to help?" Saeko asked, mustering up all the politeness she could in the situation.
The humanoid hunter stared at the two for a moment before he tilted his head to look at the ground. He leaned down, picked something up, and dropped it on Saeko's hand.
It was a piece of a metal chunk. The same piece Saeko used to strike the serpent alien moments earlier.
"Weapon." The hunter played back Saeko's voice. Takashi and Saeko's expressions flattened at that.
"What the f-" Takashi said under his breath, "He's a comedian huh? Asshole."
"Come on, Kumoro-kun." Saeko gripped the metal piece tightly regardless. "Let's go."
The two pushed onwards with the hunter at their backs.