When Cathie awoke the next morning, she was alone. The fire had burned down to a few pathetic, glowing embers.

"Ali?" Cathie called as she sat up.

She was answered by a sharp bird-like cry and the slight rustling of tree branches. Hugging herself, Cathie got to her feet and looked around. There was no sign of a struggle so she wasn't sure if Ali had been attacked. A horrible, sinking feeling slowly filled her chest; Ali had abandoned her! Probably sometime in the night. Probably hoping a horrible monster would eat her. Probably—

"Hey."

"Ali!" Cathie cried, spinning around as Ali stepped out from the tree line.

"What?"

"I—I thought you had abandoned me!"

Ali raised an eyebrow. "I'm not one to go back on my promises."

"Well, I—I just thought you didn't want me as a burden," it was then that Cathie noticed a gash on Ali's face that cut diagonally across the bridge of her nose. "What happened?"

This time, Ali laughed. "You are a really heavy sleeper! Didn't even wake up when this creature came into our little campout. I don't even know how to begin to describe it, but it looked like a giant, hairless rat and dog hybrid. Pretty vicious teeth, too!"

"You could have woken me! Not face it on your own!"

Ali laughed again. "I tried, but like I said, you are a very heavy sleeper! But it wasn't anything I couldn't handle."

"So," Cathie said, "What's the plan?"

"Staying alive."

"Well, what I meant was, are we just going to hang out here or are we going to move?"

"That depends; do you want to be a still target or a moving one?"

"Moving." Cathie didn't have to think about that one.

"Then we should be off," Ali instructed and without waiting for a reply.

"Wait, what about breakfast?"

"No breakfast," Ali said, disappearing behind a tree.

Cathie hurried to catch up. "But you said that we needed to keep our strength up!"

"You're not hungry."

"How would you—?" Cathie paused, full of surprise. Ali was right; she wasn't hungry at all. "What—?"

"That thing we ate last night, it takes a while to digest and helps keep the hunger down," Ali explained, "I've been living off them since I was released; that way I don't have to waste too much time hunting."

They walked in silence for a while, moving carefully through the thick trees and avoiding fallen branches and debris scattered across the ground. Every so often Ali would pause at a tree or at a patch of ground, studying it for any sign of the Yautja hunting them. If she did find something, she would send them in a different direction to avoid the hunter. Sometimes, they would come across signs of another type of prey, but they had yet to actually run into anything. The sounds around them weren't dangerous or threatening, but they were unlike anything they had heard before.

The longer they walked, the more Cathie sunk into herself. She wasn't sure how much longer she could last in this situation; how long she could hide the truth from Ali. As it was, Ali already knew something was different about her, something that differentiated her from other humans.

"Hey!" Ali shouted suddenly.

"Sorry," Cathie mumbled, backing up.

She had been so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn't notice that Ali had stopped and ran directly into her.

"Stop daydreaming!" Ali snapped.

"Why'd you stop?"

Ali pointed. "There's movement coming from over there, by that tree."

Cathie squinted in the direction of Ali's finger, but couldn't see anything for a moment, then, she caught sight of something shifting along the tree. "It looks small."

"I'm going for a closer look, you gonna stay behind and cower?"

Cathie glared, not happy with Ali always calling her a coward, and she followed closely behind Ali as she crept forward. However, as they got closer, they came across a surprise. There was no trace of movement or of anything. What had happened to the creature? They had been watching that spot the whole time, so what happened to it?

"Where'd it go?" Cathie asked, her voice shaking.

"I don't know."

Suddenly, there was a sharp shriek and something fell from the tree above. Cathie screamed and dove to the side, afraid that it was some kind of Yautja weapon. Ali, however, seemed to be the target, and was unable to move away in time as the thing fell on her head. Cathie thought she was done for, but she was caught by surprise.

The thing turned out to be a black scorpion-like creature, except this creature was about the size of a small chihuahua and looked more like an upside down version of a scorpion. Its tail came down underneath its body, ending with a sharp barb. Its long, jointed legs held its body high enough so that its tail didn't get in its way when it walked. Its head spun around to stare at Cathie and it shrieked at her, showing off a set of vicious pincers. Ali, when she saw that the creature wasn't initially attacking her, reached up and plucked it off her head and held it out in front of her.

"What do you suppose it is?" she asked, cocking her head as she studied the creature in her hands.

"I don't know, but I say we toss it aside and get out of here," Cathie said.

The creature gave soft coos as it looked up at Ali. "It's kind of cute."

"Only you would find something here cute," Cathie rolled her eyes.

The creature responded with an angry hiss in Cathie's direction.

"Well, I'm keeping it," Ali said. She examined the creature closely, turning it over in her hands. "Do you think it's a boy or girl?"

"What difference does it make?"

"I want to make sure I give it the right name."

"Name?"

"Yes," Ali said, "I'm thinking Scorpios, is that too straight forward? What about Orion? I'm kind of into Greek mythology."

The creature hissed at the mention of the name Orion, as if disgusted.

"I don't think it likes that name," Cathie said.

"I guess that makes it a girl. But is Scorpios the right name?" The creature cooed in approval and Ali giggled. "I like her."

Cathie finally got to her feet and moved over to Ali's side to get a better look at Scorpios. However, the little creature spun its head around and belted out a vicious scream. Cathie took a step back.

Ali laughed. "Guess she doesn't like you."

Cathie tried to chuckle as the Scorpios gave another shriek. Ali smiled and allowed Scorpios to shift toward her shoulder where the creature perched comfortably.

"Let's just continue moving," Cathie requested.

"Fine."

Cathie was forced to either stay to one side of Ali or keep her distance in order to keep Scorpios from screaming at her. So far, Scorpios was the only other creature they encountered and Cathie was beginning to wonder if anything else was going to come. She was also finding herself growing more confident that they would go another night unscratched when Ali stopped and Scorpios' head spun around to stare as something off in the distance.

"Stay back," Ali commanded.

"No, I want to help."

"There are Yautja nearby and I think one of them is your hunter."

The blood drained from Cathie's face and her gaze shot toward the direction that Ali and Scorpios were looking. She could pick out something moving in between the trees and her heart quickened in response. She turned back to see that Ali and Scorpios had vanished.

"Ali?" Cathie asked.

She wished she had kept her mouth shut as something fast whizzed past her head and she ducked on instinct. The sound of heaving footsteps reached her ears and she desperately searched for a hiding spot. She didn't have enough time when the trees parted and two large Yautja appeared before her. Her mouth went dry and she started shaking.

Ali was still nowhere to be seen.

The Yautja stared at her, unmoving, for several seconds. Then, one of them stepped forward, its gun on its shoulder swiveling to face her. Fear held Cathie in place, fear that she would die right here and now despite what Rick had said. But, before the gun could even engage, something fell from the trees above. Cathie barely had time to register what it was before it landed on the Yautja's back and knocked it off balance.

"Ali?" Cathie gasped.

Ali looked up with a smile. "I almost burst out laughing," she said, "The look of terror on your face was priceless."

"I was bait?" Cathie nearly screamed.

Ali answered with a smirk before turning her attention to the Yautja underneath her. She ripped her stolen blade free of its holster and lunged it into the Yautja's shoulder. Bright green blood splattered her face as she twisted the blade, invoking a roar of pain from the down Yautja. By this time, the second Yaujta had gotten over its surprise and its fist smashed into Ali's chest, sending her flying backward.

It didn't give her a chance to recover before it was looming over her. Cathie wanted to do something, but every time she found herself standing in front of these predators, she froze up. And now, she could only watch as the Yaujta brought its foot up and slammed it down on Ali's arm. Ali's scream was worse than the sound of her bones cracking.

"Ali!" Cathie screamed, the feeling in her feet finally returning.

She started to run forward, forgetting about the second Yautja until its fist slammed into her chest, knocking the wind out of her. However, instead of attacking her immediately like the other Yaujta did to Ali, her Yautja attacker allowed her to catch her breath and get back to her feet.

"Ali?" Cathie called out.

When she received no answer, she turned her head to find the Yautja throwing an unconscious Ali over his shoulder and thundering away.

"No!"

Her world became a blur, followed by suffocating darkness.