Chapter 9
As Ian and Umbra got everything they could together in packs Alyona and Vera were talking amongst themselves. Once they were don't Ian walked over to the girls to tell them what they could do, and where everything was, but he was met with shy looks and giggles like high schoolers. "What's going on with you two? What's so funny?" he asked slightly annoyed, he looked at Vera who had winked at him with a smile to which he replied with a goofy half smile causing her to chuckle. Alyona looked and him and said something with a seductive tone in Russian, Ian shook his head with a confused look on his face "you know I can't speak or understand Russian right." Ian spoke to her getting more annoyed each second. Vera got up, placed her hands on his chest and tip toed up to his ear "if your mate wouldn't mind I'd say you should have us too." Her voice was soft and had a very heavy Russian accent, she stepped away running her hand down his chest slowly. As she sat down next to Alyona Ian was shocked to hear her speak to him, yet alone in English. "Okay, what? What the hell was that?" he stuttered, the women giggled looking up at him. "We will wait for you two to come back, we will keep everything safe, but when you do come back we need to speak with Umbra." Alyona said softly, her voice seemed heavy and lustful, "uhh right, okay, well I don't know what the hell happened." Ian paused and looked at Vera "you speak English?!" he asked not knowing what else to say. "Very little" Vera giggled to him.
Umbra came walking out of the room with a bag, and full set of armor, she set down the bag and looked at Ian. Ian looked over to her and she too was acting funny, her walk was a strut each step had one leg crossed over the other, her hips sway with each step. "Seriously? You too? What the fuck is going on here? Are all of you in heat or something?" Ian sarcastically asked, he didn't get an answer from anyone Just looks. Umbra walked up to the ladies and gently ran a claw down the side of each of their jaw lines. Ian huffed shaking his head at what was happening. "Okay really? Umbra we need to go, we're losing day light. You all can do whatever you want with each other if we make it back IF." Ian barked, Umbra bounced back with excitement "mate?! You don't lie do you?" she begged for an answer, "yeah, yeah but we need to go" Ian replied. Umbra made a weird sound almost like a squeal, it made Ian cock his head like a dog, he sighed and grabbed one of the bag's shouldering it. "Let's go." He demanded, Umbra followed looking back at the girls as they smiled.
They exited the bunker and Ian shut the door, and turned to Umbra who just put her mask on. "Would you mind telling me what that was about?" he took her arm looking up at her, she clicked her mandibles together in a happy tone "we were watched last night when you mated me" she said quietly, placing her hand on the side of Ian's face. Ian rolled his eyes then laughed a little. "I take it you want to try something with them then?" he asked, "only if my mate wants to" she replied. Ian thought about it for a second "we'll talk about it if we survive okay?" Umbra nodded, and gathered herself for the trip. Ian placed his weapons on his back the hand gun in its holster, and shouldered the bag again. As they walked off, they had spoken some more and finally disappeared into the tree line. They had been walking for a few hours by now, even going into a full run in a few spots to try and close the gap as quickly as possible. They found a quiet spot to rest and drink, then they were back to it, Umbra challenging her mate to race even though she knew she would win, she like to see him run.
It had to of been six hours or so based on the movement of the sun, Ian was getting a little crabby and needed to rest some more, but Umbra didn't want to. That was until the came to the canyon. Ian's mouth dropped as he saw the land on the other side, completely different. Snow had covered the ground, and the terrain was rocky, there was bushes but nothing like what was on the side they were on. The distance between the two was around a kilometer, Ian groaned looking at the distance, and he walked up to the edge to take a look down to see how far the drop was going to be. He dropped his head back and arms went limp as he groaned "aghh! Come on! Oh yeah big ass canyon that separates the two lands." He yelled putting his hands out shaking them, Umbra was amused at his temper-tantrum then her heart plummeted to her stomach as she watched Ian jump off the ledge. "IAN!" she ran to the edge of the canyon, and readied herself. She looked down, heart racing. Then she relaxed her body as she watched Ian flail about "oohh yeah! Really fucking deep Alyona! Got all worked up for nothing!" he yelled as he kicked a rock, Umbra jumped down to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Better than not being able to see ground and no bridge" Umbra told him patting his shoulder.
Ian calmed down for a moment and set the bag down taking out the furs to get ready for the cold that he could feel by just stepping a few feet from where he jumped. He looked over to Umbra who only had furs covering her stomach and a piece covering her hips down to her knees. Ian on the other hand had a tattered hooded poncho made from thick cloth he found back at the bunker and a thick fur coat under the poncho, with long patches of fur tied around his thighs and calves. Once they were done putting on the furs he tossed the bag they were held in and started walking towards the other end of the 'canyon.'
once at the wall Umbra stepped back and ran towards it jumping halfway up it then nimbly climbing, and leaping the rest of the wall. "Yeah must be nice!" Ian yelled and mumbled some other words as he began the climb. As he started getting his footing a rope hit his head and unraveled behind him, he grinned and rigged himself to the rope. He climbed most of the way to the top until Umbra could reach him and pull him up, "thank you." He smiled then stood up, the wind cut against his face like glass. Not realizing just how cold it could have been he wasn't prepared for it, he pulled up the inner part of his hood to cover his nose and mouth, and began to walk again.
The sun had finally set by the time they found a shallow cave they could sleep in for the night. The wind was terrible on this side of the canyon, the snow falling was like shards of glass. The darker it got the more the wind picked up. Umbra lit a fire and prepared some food, they sat there next to each other enjoying their meal and warmth. "So what's the plan sweet heart, what're we going to do about these serpents?" he asked after taking a bite of the jerky. She looked down to the fire then over to him, "we kill only what comes after us." She said quietly, "yeah well I'm sure there's going to be a shit ton of them. Hopefully we have enough ammo for it." He replied looking at the jerky then taking another bite, for some reason Umbra hadn't taken off her mask or ate anything. Seeing that made Ian curious.
"Are you not going to eat Umbra?" Ian asked offering a piece of jerky to her. She took the jerky holding it over the fire. "I don't like cold, and is harder for me to breath without mask." She said while holding the jerky over the fire. "Well hopefully we won't be here for long, we'll make it back to that humid ass jungle soon." Ian chuckled, Umbra removed her mask to take a bite of the jerky, she must have been hungry or wanted to get her mask back on quickly, that piece of jerky was gone rather quickly. She looked over to Ian, he smiled and gave her a few more, to which she ate in seconds. "Hungry are we?"
They finished their meal, and huddled close to each other for warmth through the night. By the time morning came Ian was already putting out the fire and gathering up a few things from the smaller pack Umbra had on her. "Hey I found these things a few weeks ago and I couldn't figure out how to work them." Ian said holding out a triangular looking plate that had divots on each end of it, Umbra looked at this object and snatched it quickly while clicking her mandibles together. "This is laser net!" she said with excitement, "Very helpful tool mate, will make things easy. How many?" Ian fished out six more "that makes seven, think that'll be enough." Ian asked then smiled seeing Umbra wiggle with excitement. "I take it that's a yes, alright well we still have a ways to go let's get going yeah?" he said, Umbra placed a few of the plates on her belt, then put the rest away in her shoulder pack, looked over to Ian and nodded. Umbra flipped open her pad and the hologram buzzed into focus setting out a path to the cave, they looked at it then to each other and began the trek once more.
After a few hours of walking through a small blizzard they found a small cavern, Umbra's visor flipped through different views. She knelt down and touched the ground where some trails of pheromones were left behind, faint but they were still there. She looked over to Ian and pointed to the ground. "They move through here." She said resting her elbow on her knee, Ian couldn't see anything so he went with it. "Can you tell if the trail is fresh?" he asked nervously, she shook her head and sighed "more than five came through here mate, they had prey.. Ooman prey." Her voice was serious, Ian's spine tingled and his eye socket felt like white noise buzzing through his face. He placed his hand over the patch and sighed. "What do they do with humans? You never told me." He asked looking at her, she stood up and walked over to Ian "Ooman's used to make kiande amedha." She said looking down at him, Ian didn't understand "okay.. What? Humans are used to make these things? How? Why!" he demanded, Umbra was afraid to tell him the reason, but didn't want Ian to not know the truth. "Yautja, sometime take Ooman and place near egg of kiande amedha, egg open to let larva lay other egg in Ooman chest through mouth. Kiande amedha exits body through chest looks like worm with teeth, then grows to be adult."
Ian was in shock learning this new information, "so you're saying an egg is put in the chest then a worm with teeth bust through, and that's how those things are made?" he asked while holding his chest and shuttering. Umbra nodded, "and your kind takes my kind to make these fucking monsters? For what?!" He shouted causing Umbra to flinch "To hunt, to become Blooded" she said submissively, Ian rubbed his temples, then looked over to Umbra. "Don't worry sweet heart, I'm not mad with you alright? Just shocked." He reassured her taking her hand squeezing it softly, she returned the squeeze and looked down to him "I was afraid mate would not want to stay if I said it sooner. I don't want to lose my mate" she said sadly. Ian smiled "don't worry I'm not going anywhere, we need to get going though." They agreed and left the cavern, luckily the blizzard had calmed down enough to make the walk easy.
Based on the map they weren't that far away from the mountain, and once the clouds that blanketed the mountain moved Ian's jaw hit the floor. The mountain had to be ten times larger than Everest, and was like the Great Wall of China, spanning thousands of kilometers to each side. "How could we not see that son a bitch?!" Ian said gawking at the mountain. "Snow clouds thick here and high, makes sense" Umbra said looking down to her left at Ian. Ian shrugged then shook his head quickly, taking another step his foot sank into the snow and caught something causing him to fall forward into the snow. "Fucking a!" He coughed, and spat out snow. He pulled his foot out from the snow and reached down grabbing onto something heavy and frozen. He was able to pull it out, still covered in snow he wiped the snow off and his body went stiff. This object he was holding was metal, heavy and very familiar, only it had new markings on it and part of it was burnt off. Umbra couldn't see what he was looking at, and tried to talk to him "mate? What did you find?" she asked while walking to his front. Ian showed her the mask, his hands shaking as he did so. Umbra looked at it not recognizing it at first then it hit her. She quickly grabbed the mask looking it over, from the top of it there were 4 deep scratches that ran down to the bottom, she flipped it around to see traces of blood sprayed where the mouth was. Umbra threw the mask into the snow and began digging franticly into the snow, there was nothing but some blood and a couple pieces of metal left in the area she looked. "How is that mother fucker still alive Umbra? When that ship blew up is was like an atom bomb going off." Ian said looking around to see if anything was there. "May have escaped before bomb went off, Hish was smart, not very stupid. Could of known of trap" she replied looking at the ground.
As she got up she could see a few lumps in the snow, walking up to one of them she kicked the snow away to show a black corpse half of its body was missing, and the ground was eaten away from its blood. She went to the other bodies examining them seeing he put up a fight, but he was injured pretty bad and couldn't fight off them all. The part that struck the most fear in her was the fact that the body of the Hish wasn't anywhere in sight. "We must go this way." She barked pulling Ian's arm, he stumbled trying to keep up with her pulling, she would stop every so often at a lump of snow to check, only to find that there was no Hish corpse. "What are you looking for Umbra, the body? That thing was a tough son of a bitch, I doubt they killed him easily." Ian said, still trying to keep up with her. Suddenly she stopped in her tracks and looked up, they were at the base of the mountain. There was frozen traces of blood leading up a path that Umbra could pick up on her visor, then they stopped and there was only traces of the pheromones that the serpents left behind.
They continued up the path for what felt like hours, Umbra stopped quickly causing Ian to run into her "Umbra come on what is it now?" he huffed, she didn't say anything but her visor picked up exactly what she didn't want to see, a trail of slime left behind by the very creature that spawns the kiande amedha. "We get to ship now, we leave and never come back Ian." She said strictly, even though Ian couldn't see her face he knew that she was beyond scared, the fact that she used his name gave that much away. "Okay, well that was kind of the plan don't you think?" he asked trying to make a joke of things. She huffed and pulled at him to come quickly, they soon came to the mouth of the cave Umbra slowly peaked around the corner to see if anything was there, to her surprise there wasn't anything visible. The ship was there and nothing seemed to be wrong with it for now, but she knew they wouldn't have much time to get in and out. She turned to Ian "we must get to ship fast, we are not strong enough to fight what might come out." She said with a shaky voice, Ian didn't know what to think of this he never heard or seen her get this worked up over something.
With that being said and seen, Ian knew he just had to trust her and go with it. Umbra took one last look into the cave, to make sure there weren't any watchers. She scanned the top of the cave the sides and the two other entrances deeper in the cave. She couldn't see anything, and with that took Ian by the hand and ran towards the ship. As they did Ian suddenly got a massive headache, he stopped and winced at the pain for a second, then began to run again. Umbra not knowing her mate was feeling pain she kept running inadvertently leaving Ian behind. The sound in his head was like a loud ring mixed with screaming, he couldn't take it anymore and dropped to his knees gripping his head, trying everything not to scream out in pain. Umbra went to grab for Ian as she came up to the ship door, but he wasn't there she turned around to see him on his knees gripping his head teeth clenched, and breathing heavy. She quickly looked over to the two other corridors then back to Ian. It was only seconds before the screeching came from deep within the corridors, Umbra jumped over to the one taking the plates from her belt and tossing them onto the walls making a red gate between her and the coming sounds. She ran to the next one placing the last few in their spots.
Ian couldn't handle it anymore the sounds in his head were unbearable, he yelled out in pain as the sounds kept barraging his brain. Umbra ran up to him "Ian?! Ian! My mate we must go! Fight the calling!" she cried, picking him up heading to the ship. Just before she got to the door, the wave of serpents were diced into pieces as they forced through the laser net. Their blood melting into the cave ground eating though it rapidly, Ian still screaming trying to gain control of his mind. Umbra got to the door and pressed buttons quickly, it whizzed open and she pulled Ian inside. As she did so the second corridors lasers cut through its passers, it only took seconds before the serpents figured out they could go under from the newly opened ground. Umbra freaked knowing they only had seconds to start up the ship and get out.
Ian was laying on the floor of the ship the ringing and screaming in his mind made him physically unable to move. Then words formed in his mind only saying one thing you .. Will die. His eyes opened wide and he roared through his teeth, only seconds passed and the sounds were gone. Umbra started up the ship, the panels buzzed and the ship hummed, the engines kicked on and it began to lift up and out of the cave, the serpents stopped and watched waiting for the right moment to pile onto the ship and take it over. Umbra looked back to Ian who was getting to his knees he looked over to her giving her a thumbs up to go. She didn't hesitate, forcing the ship backwards and faced it out the exit. She grabbed onto the handles pulling one back and slamming the other forward, the ship rattled and roared sending towers of flames into the cave the flames burned through everything sending walls of fire over and around the ship. Umbra pushed forward the other handle and the ship jettisoned from the cave with a booming roar. Ian was thrown to the back of it hitting his head and knocking him out.
She slowed down the ship and stopped it hovering in the sky, she ran back to Ian and grabbed him the back of his head had blood coming from it, she changed visors quickly to make sure he didn't have and major injuries, she sighed to see that he only had a small cut on the back of his skull that could be taken care of easily. She shook him softly and he came too slowly, Umbra couldn't help but embrace him knowing he was at least alive. "Ian are you okay? Mate?" she asked quietly, Ian looked up to her and grinned "you need to learn how to drive there lady." She didn't know what he meant, and didn't care. Ian stood up slowly and grabbed the back of his head walking up to the cockpit to sit in a chair. Umbra followed him and sat in the seat. Umbra began to pilot the ship forward back to the bunker, Ian laid his head back and sighed resting his hands on his lap.
The ship came to a halt, and Ian braced himself not knowing what happened. "What's going on? Why'd you stop?" Ian said looking to Umbra, her gaze was stuck on something down at the ground, a large something. Said large something was staring at the ship from what Ian could see it looked like Umbra, but it also had the weird body and head of the serpents. Umbra said something in a venomous tone looking down at the huge creature who seemed to carry on the traits of the Hish, where he just stood there staring at you. "uhh what the fuck is that thing?" Ian stuttered pointing at it. "And what the fuck is that word you said" Ian stood up arms open looking at Umbra. "Abomination." Was all she said looking down at the beast, from what could be seen it was an ugly mixture of the two black and greenish brown riddled over its body, its tail was twice as large than a serpents. It had the dreads, and mandibles just like Umbra, its head had to be the size of Ian's chest. It's back carried six tubular protrusions three on each side of its spine, and from the looks of the shadow and cave entrance it had to be more than nine feet tall.
Umbra growled looking at the beast as it stood there, then it stood straight and opened its arms it looked to be roaring, but they couldn't hear it. Ian looked over to Umbra then ran to the back of the ship grabbing his rifle and what looked like grenades, he slammed the side of his fist against a button causing a door to swish open. Once the door had opened he could clearly hear it roar, well that's intimidating, he thought as he aimed the rifle. He squeezed the trigger looking though the scope only to scoff as he could see the rounds ricochet off its skin. "Oh come the fuck on!" he yelled unloading the rest of the mag into it. "Skin too hard for that! She will not be harmed by your gun!" Umbra yelled to Ian, "what the fuck!? She!" he exclaimed "no, no, no, no, that's a fucking it. It!" he yelled back chucking a grenade at it, the explosion angered the beast. It roared a throaty roar and grabbed something from the cave, "seriously?!" Ian yelled as the beast had one of the smaller serpents primed to throw. She launched the bug at the ship, Umbra reacted quickly turning the ship sharply to the left, Ian almost lost his balance, but saw it come in contact with was he was thinking was some sort of thruster, was blown back to the ground and pretty much exploded on contact. Ian chuckled only to feel something hit the side of the ship, she had thrown another one up and it latched on to the ship.
Ian didn't waste any time plugging in them as the latched onto the ship. "Get us out of here Umbra! Now!" he yelled, she didn't wait for another word and launched the ship forward, then off to the left. Ian could see the beast had given chase, but soon she couldn't be seen anymore. "We need to get those girls back at the bunker, and get the fuck off this rock Umbra." He said coming up next to her, she huffed and took the ship up and out of the atmosphere into space. "No Umbra we need to get the girls we can't leave them behind." he begged. We need better weapons, Abominations do not deserve to live, we come back for friends." She said looking over to Ian. He knew she was right, but he didn't know if leaving them behind was the right thing to do. "Umbra? Mate?" she snapped her head to him quickly and took his hand "Umbra we need to get them out of there, it's not right that they have to wait or be killed, or worse." Ian said trying to get her to listen.
Umbra dropped her head, and spun the ship back around breaking into orbit. "Must be quick, she will see us and follow." Umbra said softly, "and we will be. Trust me mate." Ian replied, Umbra loved hearing Ian call her mate. She couldn't help but follow his command, this Ooman has done something to her that she never thought would happen. He controlled her with only words, he didn't have to ask twice, she would obey anything he had told her without question. Ian didn't know what he had done to her when he said mate, all he knew was that there was a deep connection between them, and he'd do anything to make sure she was taken care of. The only thing that he wanted now, was to know that the two women in that bunker were still alive, and that they had a chance to go back home.