Cathie waited until the Yautja had been swept down the river and out of sight before coming out from behind the tree. "Are you okay?" she asked.
Ali was clutching her shoulder as dark blood spilled over her fingers and dripped onto the ground. Cathie's eyes widened when she saw the ground sizzling in the places where Ali's blood had spilled.
"What—"
"That's one of the things that make me part alien," Ali explained, her voice was strained.
"You're in pain!" Cathie exclaimed, hurrying over to Ali.
"I'm fine," Ali insisted.
But Cathie shook her head. "You're not immortal, Ali! That needs attention!"
"What do you suggest?" Ali snapped, "Rip off a strip of your shirt and bandage it up? I have acidic blood! It'll burn right through it!"
"Well it's getting dark, maybe we should find a place to wait out the night," Cathie suggested.
Ali seemed to think for a moment before nodding her head. "Fine."
Cathie smiled, but Ali only turned her back and walked into the trees. Cathie sighed and followed after Ali. She wanted to ask where Ali was planning on resting, but was afraid of Ali's wrath. Finally, when it appeared that Ali was in so much pain that she couldn't walk anymore, she collapsed in a small clearing.
"I'll get a fire started," Cathie said.
Ali didn't answer, which Cathie decided to take as an 'okay' so she wandered in a close radius to the clearing, gathering firewood and kindle. When her arms were full, she returned to the clearing to find Ali leaning weakly up against a tree, her breathing labored.
"Please," Cathie insisted, "Let me look at it after I've started a fire."
Ali glared at Cathie, but looked like she wasn't in the mood to argue, so she only nodded weakly and leaned her head back against the tree. "Do you know how to start a fire?"
"Um, I think so," Cathie said, "I'll figure it out."
"You might want to do that before it is totally dark."
"I know that!" Cathie grumbled.
However, it wasn't until darkness had fallen before she finally managed to get a spark after fervently rubbing two sticks together. Once the fire had reached a decent size, large enough to see by, but not enough to cause any unwanted attention, Cathie turned her attention to Ali. The wound had already stopped bleeding and seemed to show the beginning stages of healing and Cathie refrained from questioning how, she was pretty certain it had something to do with Ali being part alien.
"It doesn't look that bad," Cathie noted, "I think the bleeding stopped so if you want, I can bandage it."
Ali didn't answer, only gave a stiff nod. Cathie ripped off a strip of her shirt and set to work bandaging up Ali's arm. While she did, she couldn't help but wonder if asking for help was unusual for Ali and if she would rather try to figure out a solution for herself than depend on the assistance for others.
"There," Cathie said, tying the ends of the torn fabric in a tight knot, "That should hold for a while."
Ali looked down at the bandaging then up at Cathie. "Thank you," she said, rising to her feet.
"Wait, where are you going?"
"Hunting for food."
"You've hardly recovered! You can't go hunting!"
"Wait here."
Before Cathie could even respond, Ali vanished into the darkness, seeming to become one with the shadows. Alone, Cathie gazed around the darkened forest. It was so much creeper than in the day time, not to mention the odd sounds of the night that didn't sound anything like the nights back home.
After several minutes of waiting alone, Cathie began to grow troubled. Ali was still hurt, what if Ali got hurt even worse? What if she had been captured? Those questions kept circling around her head and she started to panic. What if she was next? Cathie was so tense that a sudden noise nearby caused her to nearly jump out of her skin and she gave a small squeak of terror.
"Didn't scare you, did I?" Ali's voice condescended. She reappeared, melding out of the shadows, something flung over her should.
"N—no," Cathie stammered, "These woods just creep me out."
Ali dropped whatever it was she had been carrying down and crouched over it. On closer inspection I realized it was some furry kind of creature that was about the size of a dog. Ali pulled out the knife she had stolen from a Yautja and sliced the creature's stomach open. Blood and guts spilled out onto the ground and gave off a foul odor.
"Ugh!" Cathie had to cover her mouth to keep from gagging. "What is that?"
Ali glared up at Cathie. "How am I supposed to know? It was slow, I killed it, what more do you want to know?"
"I would like to know what I'm about to eat," Cathie insisted.
Ali only rolled her eyes and went back to work slicing off large sections of meat. She then used the knife to scrape off the creature's hair until the meat was bare. She then handed the hunk of raw meat to Cathie.
"Um, can't you cook it or something?"
"Raw meat is better for you, especially when it's a matter of survival," Ali said.
Cathie sighed and took the meat from Ali. The blood ran through her fingers and over the back of her hand, sickening her with its smell. However, she refused to eat it raw. Ali didn't comment as Cathie searched around for a long stick that she could use to hold the meat over the fire. Ali had already torn into her piece, blood dripping down her chin and making her even more fierce-looking. She ate with complete animal-like mannerisms, from the way she ripped the pieces of meat, even the way she was crouched made her look like some humanoid creature.
Cathie forced her gaze off Ali and back to the meat she was trying to cook. It hadn't changed colors or give any other indication that it was cooking. The smell was still there, if not stronger than before, and it was starting to make Cathie nauseous.
"Do you want to survive?" Ali asked suddenly.
"Huh?"
"You asked me to take you with me when I escaped. If you expect me to honor that wish, you are going to have to listen to me and trust me."
"How can I trust you, I really don't know that much about you. And besides, what do you know about surviving?"
Ali smiled after taking a bite so that blood ran down her chin. "I know a lot more than you do."
"And what makes you so sure?"
"I know that you probably haven't had to survive on your own in a while, seeing as you live in a house with at least two other people."
Cathie's mouth gaped open. "How do you know that?"
"Because that was when your attacker started following you; when you left your house that night."
"You were following me?"
Ali shook her head. "I was following that creep who attacked you," she explained. "That's how I work; I target a potentially threatening individual, follow him around and see what he does. When he attacks, I intervene."
"So you don't know if the person you're following will attack anyone. What happens if someone else gets attacked while you're watching some other person?"
"I am usually right 99% of the time. And for the cases where I target the wrong person, well, I usually hear the struggling and the screams and rush over to the area."
Cathie was speechless. "How do you know what an attacker looks like?"
"They are predators, I am a predator. I am able to sense it," Ali explained with a shrug of her shoulders, as if it was nothing special.
Cathie shook her head slowly, stunned. "Fine, if you're going to help me, I'll try to trust you."
"Good, now stop worrying about cooking it and just eat it raw," Ali said, already hacking off another piece and tearing into it.
Cathie pulled the meat closer to her and studied it with a wrinkled nose. The smell had dissipated slightly, but the overall appearance of the meat didn't appeal to her. With a sigh, she squeezed her eyes shut tight and took a bite. It was probably the worst thing she had ever tasted and she desperately wanted to spit it back out, but if she wanted to survive, she knew she was going to have to eat it.
Ali watched Cathie with calculation eyes as Cathie slowly tore pieces off the disgusting meat and tried to keep it down. "You fascinate me," she said suddenly.
Cathie swallowed, unsure as how to respond. "Thank you?"
Ali smiled. "If you knew more about me, you'd know how rare that kind of thing is. There are only two other people I have met that have fascinated me like you do now. They are usually the ones that have allied themselves with me."
"What do you mean?"
"You remember how I told you about this being the second time I was captured by Yautja, right?"
"Yes."
"I had help, from a girl. Her name was Amber."
"So what about the other person?"
Ali's eyes suddenly darkened. It was such a dramatic change that Cathie was taken by surprise from it. Ali looked away, obviously thinking back to a particularly dark part in her past.
"Well?" Cathie prodded as gently as she could.
Ali didn't answer immediately, rather, she rose to her feet and moved to the edge of their small camp, just along the edge of firelight. She crouched down with her arms wrapped around her knees. Cathie stayed where she was, figuring that Ali didn't want to talk about it.
"There are some sick people in our world," Ali finally said, her voice unusually soft.
"Um, what do you mean?" Cathie asked.
"There are those who see someone like me as only one thing; a weapon. And they'll do anything in their power to control someone like that."
It was starting to click. "What did they do to you?"
Ali rested her head on her knees. "They forced me to kill. Before then, I only killed because I had to, to protect people, but every time I did, I hated it. I felt that killing kept reinforcing what I already knew. But when I was a prisoner to those humans the real me finally came out; they truly made me into a monster."
"But, you're not a monster."
"Maybe not on the outside, but on the inside I'm a stone-cold killer. No matter how many times I say that I want to protect people, I know that's not the real reason I do it anymore. The real reason is that now, I like killing."
Cathie recalled the look in Ali's eye when she had been perched in the tree. The burning desire to hunt like the Yautja.
"I have been able to keep those urges suppressed behind a wall," Ali went on talking, "mainly because my Queen hated to see me like that. But, every wall has its weaknesses, that point where the slightest bit of pressure causes it to collapse."
Cathie could only stare at Ali in shock. "But—but you're not like that right now are you?"
Ali glanced over and her eyes caught the firelight again, glowing with an insane light. Cathie realized then that it wasn't just the fire, it was a burning desire deep in Ali's heart.
"I watched a strange, ugly creature cower in a corner of trees as a large Yautja bore down on it," Ali said, a strange tone in her voice, "Watched as it whimpered in panic and fear. And I never felt more alive."
Cathie's hands curled into fists as she fought the tremor running through her body. What would happen if Ali caught the smell of her fear? Would her instincts take over? Suddenly, Ali's eyes softened and she turned her head away.
"I'm scaring you. I am sorry," she whispered.
"I'm not scared," Cathie said, but her shaking voice said otherwise.
Ali chuckled. "You're shaking."
"I'll be fine!" Cathie insisted.
"Suit yourself. You can sleep, don't worry. I'll keep on watch."
"All night?"
"I don't need as much sleep as you would think," Ali answered.
"Alright," Cathie said as she curled up into a ball next to the fire. She rested her head on her arms and stared into the red-hot embers. Her eyelids grew heavy as sleep clawed at her mind, forcing her into a pit of terrifying shadows and a twisted human shape with glowing eyes.