CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
Morning rolled around and K'Shai opened her eyes as the first light of dawn broke the horizon far in the distance. She smiled and pressed her lips together as she looked at R'chnt, resting peacefully next to her, flat on the ground, arm still wrapped over.
His warm body was soothing, and the rise and fall of his chest as he slept with her head on him offered a comforting rhythm to a peace she hadn't felt in some time.
She sat up and took a soft, relieved breath. K'Shai barely even remembered falling asleep, and she certainly could not remember when she had slept so well before.
It was a stark contrast to the many sleepless and uncomfortable nights that she had become accustomed to. As she sat up, R'chnt stirred and sat up, reaching for a flask of water from his armor and a piece of meat from next to the fire, both of which he offered to K'Shai first.
She stretched her arms and back towards the sky and held her breath for a moment as she looked around at the ten hunters all nearby, some asleep right near the fire, others on watch in the near distance.
No one seemed to even show the slightest amount of concern, curiosity, or apprehension at her presence. She was not quite sure exactly when that happened, but that morning seemed to K'Shai to be the first time she felt completely at ease with the Yautja and they with her.
K'Shai took a small bite of meat and a drink of water and smiled at R'chnt, silently wishing she hadn't simply just passed out asleep last night. She couldn't help but feel that certain things were not happening as she had hoped, but she forced those thoughts from her. She kissed R'chnt softly on the cheek, which did draw curious stares from the others.
K'Shai hadn't noticed as she slept that curious stares weren't heading her direction from just the Yautja. Lewis and Carlos, concerned and curious about their friend, had slipped down the path between the long overgrown crop fields and gleamed a view through a rifle scope of Cassandra sound asleep under the bright full moon light, leaned against the alien leader.
When she returned towards the human group later in the morning, she suddenly felt completely out of place as the group cast her mostly wide-eyed curious stares mixed in with a few disapproving glares. The old man of the house, who Cassandra quickly learned was named Albert, grumbled his way around their quasi-welcome visitors as his wife Nora fixed a real home cooked breakfast, the first in ages.
Farm fresh cooked eggs, freshly picked vegetables and carrot juice were arranged in bowls and pitchers on a picnic table between the house and the pond, and the main dish to complete the meal was freshly seared pork chops.
"Oh, this food is incredible."
"Thank you so much."
"Haven't eaten this well in weeks."
The group said through satisfied groans between bites. Albert nodded appreciatively, and then barked that the entire group was expected to fulfill chores before they departed with a sort of harsh love grandfatherly tone.
"So, are you going to want to bring any food to your friends there, Pocahontas?"
Cassandra glared at the old man and suddenly felt certain her entire face had turned beet red. She pressed her lips together and gave a wide eyed stare to Lewis, Carlos, Albert and a few other curious faces who turned her way as she stood nearby, scanning the food spread on the table.
"I just thought I would help …. with the dishes…" she said hurriedly and grabbed up all the used plates she possibly could as quickly and feverishly as possible and scurried into the house to start washing them.
Nora walked in a short time later, a gentle, distant smile on her face and without a word began to help with the dishes.
"We've lived in this home for sixty-two years. It was Al's parents' home and this is where I waited for him to come back from the war." She smiled reminiscently and continued. "I was your age, you know. All that fighting and death and the waiting…."
Cassandra swallowed and bit her lip, having a very good idea where the conversation was headed. She took a deep breath and held it.
"All I could think about was Al, and being with him again. He was sent home after being shot." She glanced to Cassandra who cast a concerned look, but Nora smiled. "Oh, he was a strong and stubborn ox. He pulled through and came home. We got married two days later, cast and all. Right there…" She pointed off the porch towards the pond and a large walnut tree.
"This is where we raised our children. Oh the birthday parties and good times we've had….."
Her voice trailed off and Cassandra smiled politely, placing another dish in the drying rack next to the sink.
"Why didn't you leave?" She asked.
"Leave? Here?" Nora looked absolutely shocked at the very notion.
"Dear, this is our home. Love made this house into a home. We can't just leave it. We'll be here until we die, and we will love each other until we die. It hasn't always been easy." She laughed lightly. "There have been so many challenges along the way. It was far from easy, but love is love."
Cassandra bit her lower lip and clenched her jaw, staring at Nora in lost thought. She nodded appreciatively.
"Thank you…" Cassandra paused, "uhh… for letting the group stay here for the night. I truly hope you and your husband the best."
Nora smiled softly, an accepting look on her face. It was a look that said she knew they would probably die together in that home, but whatever the risks, she had accepted their fate.
Able members of the group assisted Albert in all the farm and home chores he asked for; repayment for a roof over their heads and a meal in their belly. As the afternoon moved in, they were bid farewell and soon, Cassandra, Lewis, Carlos, and the others headed on towards a source of supplies and a camping hideout once again.
The migratory journey had become a familiar thing. Every member of the group, from the youngest to the oldest, all understood the need to travel, to continue to scavenge for resources and a place to live.
There was no concept of 'home' anymore like Albert and Nora clearly clinged to. Supporting two people was a different story, of course, than supporting a group, and necessitated different requirements.
As they walked on one more time towards an unknown city in the unknown distance, Lewis and Carlos, who remained close to Cassandra as R'chnt and the other Yautja disappeared entirely to hunt and secure their surroundings, stayed awkwardly quiet once again, but the lingering questions on their minds were obvious in their expressions every time they glanced at Cassandra.
She remained silent as well, for the longest time, but she had told Lewis and Carlos she would talk to them today, and she intended to do so.
She kept trying to come up with an easy way to start a challenging conversation, but at every rest stop, she found herself only looking off towards the distance, past trees and buildings and fields and homes, scanning for R'chnt silently instead.
"We'll make camp up ahead," Lewis called out to the group, noting a sign for a small city just two miles away.
The afternoon was moving fast, and the short days made for a quickly setting sun on the horizon. They hadn't heard a single sound of any drones since the morning before, but moving through unknown locations during the night was never a good idea.
"We should talk," Cassandra finally said a short while into the final stretch of the journey for the night.
"I think we definitely should," Lewis agreed. "But, Cassy. Obviously, whatever's been going on has been going on for a while. Am I right?"
She silently nodded as Carlos looked on. They walked separated from the group slightly, and kept their voices to a minimum so they would not be overheard.
"Well, when you want to talk to us about this, then you will." Lewis continued.
Cassandra nodded and smiled, dropping her eyes to the road for a moment.
"Just…just… be O.K. Alright? I mean… just don't get hurt." He added in after a brief silence.
She stayed quiet but offered him a gracious smile.
They arrived at the edge of the next city and slowed down, walking silently through several blocks not far from a river, and they scanned the nearby buildings surrounding them.
All seemed quiet and without straying too far in the quickly darkening evening, Lewis and a few others began to peer in some of the long abandoned buildings, mostly warehouses.
"There's a hotel up a ways'," someone pointed out a sign with an arrow directing the way. "Be real nice to spend the night in a real bed."
Lewis nodded and pulled away from the locked door of a warehouse he had just tried to force open. The group walked a short distance and crossed through the parking lot across the road and headed down the street in the direction of the arrow when movement caught their attention.
"Well, now this is a problem…" a voice called, cackling, from somewhere ahead in the dark.
A gang of men slowly appeared, each one heavily armed, black clad, and all looking beat up and worn. They smirked and staggered as their ring leader smiled superiorly and aimed his shotgun.
"You see, we're grateful for the presents," he said, licking his lips and making a kissing gesture towards two of the women in the group. "But we don't really take all that well to outsiders in our turf."
"Your turf?" Lewis questioned sharply and the man turned his gun towards him.
"Yea, that's right. Our turf."
Cassandra and several others raised their weapons and nearly three dozen of the gang's members did the same, quickly encroaching on the group. She held her breath for a tense moment as she realized the leader of the group's gaze suddenly turned towards her and her alien weapon.
He tipped his head and snorted.
"Now where did you get that, you pretty little thing?"
K'Shai firmed her gaze and grumbled at him through gritted teeth.
"Stay the hell away from us."
"Oh! Meow! She's got teeth this one!" The gang leader laughed. Some of his group joined him.
"Alright, look. We're all on the same side here, OK." A man next to Lewis said, stepping forward with his palms spread. "We're not your enemy. We have injured and kids here."
Suddenly one of the gang landed a hard punch into the man's abdomen and another grabbed and slammed him to the ground. The scene erupted and gun fire rang out, sending the injured and unarmed scrambling. Cassandra held her ground but fired a shot into the air which drew everyone's attention.
"Stop! Just stop!" Lewis demanded loudly. "You're outnumbered. Don't make us kill you."
The leader of the gang laughed and Lewis glanced to Cassandra with almost a questioning look in his eye. Cassandra quickly shook her head. The Yautja were nowhere around, if that was the 'outnumbered' that Lewis was referring to.
"Not from where I'm standing. We're better armed, we have more people, and you have injured and kids." The gang leader mocked.
Cassandra swallowed and kept her eyes and weapon firmly locked on the man, who was right. Lewis could see her nervously twitching the trigger of the alien rifle and he stepped slowly away, out of the range of fire.
"I'll tell you what… we'll barter, how's that?" The man said.
Lewis stayed silent and glared at him. Cassandra could only imagine, by the hungry look the gang leader shot towards two other women not far from her side, what he was going to expect in return for safe passage. Her finger tightened on the trigger.
"You give us the women and that weapon and we'll kill the rest of you quickly. Just a bullet to the head; nice and painless." He said as he pressed two fingers to his own forehead.
"Go to hell," Lewis said before he even let the man say another word.
Once again, gun fire started up, a fight broke out. Cassandra aimed to take a shot, but Lewis was too near, too in the way. She couldn't fire without hitting him. A scream from behind her caught her attention and she whipped around to see several of the gang members attacking and grabbing at the two women and the youngest girl in the group, ten year old Kelly. She howled for her mother, tears in her eyes, and the men that grabbed her laughed and hit at people around her trying to help.
Cassandra shouted and took one shot. She fired her plasma caster not towards any of the men. She knew at best, she would get off one shot before she had any number of men grappling her down.
She had a fraction of a second to put the shot where she hoped it would do the most good. She raised her arm and fired straight into the air; a signal.
Her abdomen quickly met the hard slam of a rifle butt. She collapsed to the ground barely able to breathe and before she could react, two men were on top of her. She covered her face after someone hit her across the jaw.
She could hear screaming, she could taste blood and she could barely breathe. It seemed like the world has stopped moving for a moment. She saw Lewis on the ground, and she wasn't exactly sure what else was going on around her.
He glanced to her and she looked from him to the rooftops and buildings around them, grimacing and wincing from the pain as she was yanked off the ground and dragged away.
Her whole body shook with an intense fear she hadn't quiet experienced before. The bugs, the alien animals as they were, had left her cowering in paralyzing fear more times than she could recall, but now, as she was dragged away to a fate that she desperately tried not to imagine, she suddenly realized a whole type of fear of a different kind of creature that she had never experienced before.
Just before she and five other restrained females from the group, including the young girl, were dragged inside a dark warehouse loading dock door, she glanced again to the empty building tops, unable to stop tears from welling up in her eyes.
She was sore from being hit across the face and in the stomach, but she still struggled as best as she could against the wildly cackling man who gripped her so tightly by her arms she felt like she was going to lose circulation. She could barely focus on what was going on around her as panic set in, but she did hear cries and wails of the other girls near her, all also being dragged to the same fate.
In a few exhausting minutes, Cassandra found herself being forcibly shoved against a cold, dirty, concrete floor in a basement level windowless, dark storage room. A battery powered camping lantern was the only light source in the barren walled room, and a rancid stench filled her nostrils.
She was quickly followed into the room by three more men and two equally frightened women, Nancy and her ten year old daughter, Kelly.
It was like a blur to Cassandra how things had gone so wrong so quickly. There had been a gunfire exchange, that much she was certain of, but what had happened to the rest of the group, to the injured that weren't able to fight, or to the men that were willing to, she couldn't be sure.
She focused her eyes through the dark in the large empty room and watched the others being tied and restrained in the same way, by nothing more than zip ties, to open piping in the room. Kelly wailed in a high pitched shriek as her mother continually tried to soothe her through her own shaky voice, telling her to keep her eyes closed.
"Oh, don't close your eyes, little girl. You ever seen a dick before? You're gonna' be in for a… whole new experience."
The gang's leader said to her slowly, with a sickening brimming smile on his face as he stroked the girl's cheek.
"Get the hell away from her you bastard," Cassandra growled, taking a deep breath as her heart began to pound with anger as well as fear.
The four men in the room laughed and all turned their heads towards her. Cassandra stood shakily, hands behind her back and strapped together behind a pipe. She clenched her jaw, scanned the doorway to the room one last time as one man closed it. R'chnt was nowhere to be seen or heard.
She shook on the spot, her mind running rampant with thoughts of where the next few minutes were going to lead as the leader of the group pulled out a large knife and waved it in front of her.
"This one's got spice." He said laughing superiorly as he stood inches away from Cassandra and stared down her shirt which he immediately cut apart and removed from her, along with her bra.
Cassandra stifled a cry as the man groped her with a satisfied smile on his face while Nancy looked on in horror, unable to comfort her daughter who was restrained, still crying, several feet away.
"Spice is nice, right boys?" The man laughed and taunted, immediately reaching his hand down the front of Cassandra's jeans.
She screamed and kicked, slamming to the ground as she lost her balance trying to support herself against the pipework with her restrained hands. The plastic ties cut into her wrists as she struggled and she suddenly felt winded as she landed hard on her back and aggravated the bang to her stomach from the rifle butt.
The men cackled and howled and the gang leader moved in to her, knife at the ready while another man pulled off her boots as another pressed her down on the ground while Cassandra cried and howled with rage and fear as she struggled against her assailants.
"Better watch it there, sugar. I might end up shoving other than my dick in you first!"
The gang leader taunted as he waved the large knife near her and began to cut into her jeans, laughing and howling before he pulled them off of her completely and groped her.
Cassandra kicked at the two men holding her down, screaming at the top of her lungs, fighting feverishly against what was happening to her as her face filled with tears and turned red with rage. The men cursed at her and one of them struck her hard against the shoulder, bashing his fist into her with so much force that Cassandra's neck whipped backward and her head banged into the pole she was attached to.
She couldn't help but to glance around the room again, scanning the darkness, the walls, the closed door. For a moment as she regained herself, she could hear screams of people echoing from somewhere outside, but she wasn't sure where they were coming from, or whose screams they were.
"Oh, finally, quieted down, that's nice." The gang leader said as Cassandra clenched her jaw and glared at him.
He sneered over and unclasped his belt and lowered his pants.
"Sorry boys, this bitch is mine first. You guys can your fun with her next."
"I'm not for you," Cassandra said firmly, quietly, despite her shaking voice. "R'chnt will come."
The man laughed and the two others nearby looked at her curiously. Cassandra didn't notice the wide eyed stares Nancy and Kelly shot her.
"What was that?" The man laughed casually as though he hadn't heard her.
"R'chnt will come." She responded more firmly. "I am not for you."
She repeated her words three more times in case the man didn't hear the first time. He sneered and laughed and joked to his group.
He lunged for her, leaning his naked lower body over her, and grabbed her hair, ripping her head backwards, and pressing his face right into hers.
"I don't know what the hell a R'chnt is, but when he comes, I'll fuck him over, too." He whispered.
Cassandra shook violently as the man forced his knees between hers, laughing and calling out to the others.
"Take note, now, and watch the show, cause you're both next, too." He said towards Nancy and her young daughter. Nany cried and pleaded to her terrified young daughter to just keep her eyes closed and turn away.
Cassandra screamed and kneed the man hard in the face one more time, shouting as loudly as her terrified voice would allow as she broke into tears again.
"I am not for you! R'chnt will come!"
"Alright, I've had about enough of you! Too much damned fight." The man growled as he grabbed her knees hard. "Never had one as wild as you."
He slammed the knife angrily down into her thigh and pinned her to the ground. The knife tore through her skin and muscle and she could feel her own warm blood pouring out of her. She screamed horribly and felt weak and queasy.
She could barely keep her eyes open or really comprehend her surroundings. She thought she heard a door slam, a man scream. She saw the man on top of her coming towards her, inches away from entering her. She was certain she heard R'chnt's familiar growl, although in a tone more angered than perhaps she had ever heard before.
She felt the space around her body clear and she opened her eyes enough to see the man forcibly flung across the wide room. She did not notice the other two Yautja in the room with R'chnt or the two of the four men already slain.
She heard R'chnt direct W'rsa to cut loose the other two human females and shut her eyes again as R'chnt rounded on her and knelt beside her as a weak smile etched on her lips.
Lewis and Carlos ran to the doorway and pulled to a dead halt as they surveyed the bodies and saw R'chnt kneeling next to Cassandra, cutting her hands free from their bindings as Nancy's boyfriend ran into the room, past the three Yautja hunters, and grabbed her and Kelly and escorted them out as they cried and whimpered with shock and fright.
K'Shai gripped tightly around R'chnt's strong, wide shoulders and held onto him, breaking down and crying wildly for several long moments as all the others stood watching in silence, including two of the gang members, one still pantless as he pulled himself off the ground and glared around, bleeding from the back of his head from the impact after a forceful throw.
Two Yautja lingering nearby assured that the two men awaited R'chnt's punishment.
"I knew you would come," K'Shai cried to R'chnt through her tears over and over again as she clinged to him.
After a moment, R'chnt glanced towards W'rsa and indicated subtly with his head for him to approach and assist.
"This is going to hurt, K'Shai." R'chnt warned. "We have to get this out of you."
Carlos inched forward into the room, lingering a dozen feet away from the two working Yautja as they methodically pulled the knife from Cassandra's thigh and sealed the wound with a substance he did not recognize.
K'Shai wailed in agony as the knife was removed and the wound was cauterized. She barely managed to stay conscious as R'chnt lifted her carefully and removed her from the room.
He carried her a short distance down the unlit corridor beyond the room and stopped, delicately placing her back on the floor as he tried to peel himself out from under her tight grip. She took a ragged breath and eyed him widely, trying to control her sobs and wrestle away the pain and fear.
"I thought he was going to…." She sobbed softly, in barely a whisper as Lewis, Carlos and a few aghast onlookers approached her carefully, straining to try to understand the words she spoke in a language they could not possibly recognize.
"I'm so glad you came when you did. I knew you would come."
R'chnt caressed her face with his palm and tipped his head, surveying her body's injuries. He glanced up towards Carlos, who dared to get close enough, and seemed to understand R'chnt's intentions and direction even despite the expressionless mask he wore.
Carlos hopped over towards Cassandra with a spring, as though he had just been screamed at to come forward. Lewis quickly followed and the two neared Cassandra warily. Lewis pulled his jacket off and moved in to put it over her naked body.
"Remain here with your friends, K'Shai, for just a moment. I will return shortly." R'chnt whispered to her.
He tried to pull himself up, but it took him several efforts to get her to release her frightened grip on his shoulder and arm before he stood tall in the dark hallway and moved past Lewis and Carlos with a deep growl emanating from under his sleek, damaged helmet.
"Here, Cassy," Lewis whispered as he covered her with his jacket.
She smiled gratefully at him and glanced around to see Nancy and Kelly, still filled with tears, staring at her from a close distance, unable to speak.
Carlos looked over Cassandra's bruises and gently touched the cauterized wound on her thigh.
"Does this hurt?"
"Incredibly…" K'Shai whispered as she squeezed her eyes shut for a moment.
She flinched suddenly and opened her eyes widely as Carlos, Lewis, and the others in the hallway all looked back towards the doorway to the room, where a horrific series of screams and pleas and crying and begging rang out for several long moments.
Curious spectators, including Lewis, carefully tiptoed back towards the door, which was not closed, and peered into the dimly lit room, seeing what they could in the eerie haze cast off by the weak lantern. Nancy quickly ushered her daughter out of the hallway completely and up the nearby stairs to the upper level.
The screaming and crying seemed to go on forever, and K'Shai could feel her heart pounding. She clenched her jaw tightly and tried to subdue the anger boiling in her.
Sickened groans and curses from the onlookers in the hallway told her all that she needed to know about what was going on in the room.
She had no doubts that the two men were being skinned alive, undoubtedly with some element of mutilation like chopping off the offending extremity beforehand. She felt no sympathy and for the briefest flicker of a moment she wasn't sure if that was right, wrong, or indicative of something else entirely, she just wanted R'chnt to return to her.
"Jesus…" Carlos muttered as the screams from the room finally died down into a muted gurgling sound before silencing completely.
For a few moments, the eerie silence filled the corridor as no one moved or even breathed before R'chnt reappeared, followed by W'rsa and rejoined by four other Yautja in the hallway, three of whom had been directed to help the remaining women in another room.
Lewis eyed R'chnt warily and noticed gobs of blood and tissue dripping off his wrist blades as they retracted into their shielded housing on his right forearm. R'chnt made an obvious effort to wipe away the blood from his hands with a rag he picked up on his way out of the room before heading to Cassandra's side.
He returned to K'Shai who greeted him with a small, tired smile. Carlos quickly moved out of his way as R'chnt approached, making a noise that he couldn't tell if it was a growl or words.
Cassandra seemed to understand, though, he thought. She remained silent but nodded graciously to him as he lifted her up and carried her through the building along with the rest of his group and Lewis, Carlos and the other stunned humans as they all reunited outside of the building in the parking lot.
The groups moved on, only covering a short distance before they found a suitable location to accommodate both parties and camp for the remaining hours of the night. R'chnt never let Cassandra out of his grip, and she had long since fallen asleep in his arms by the time they all settled into a nearby building.
Lewis and Carlos hovered nearby, sitting with their backs against an opposite wall and eyeing Cassandra wrapped up in the arms of the vicious alien hunter, sound asleep. A short while after securing the area and searching for any useful supplies, Kelly and her mother Nancy appeared from an adjacent corridor with a blanket in her arms.
They walked delicately over to R'chnt, who had removed his mask and was busy cleaning the blood off his wrist blades with a handheld laser, his arms fully engulfing Cassandra as she slept against him.
He looked up watching the two females approaching him and noticing as they did that several nearby onlookers took to their feet, apparently warily apprehensive about their close proximity to the on guard alien.
Nancy eyed the alien as he looked at her and traced her gazed down to Cassandra's head against his chest. She smiled softly and spoke in a whisper so quietly that Lewis and Carlos held their breath and strained their ears to hear her words.
"I don't know if you can understand me…." Nancy visibly shook on the spot as she spoke to the silent alien who merely watched her. She glanced down to her daughter next to her and back to the seven and half foot tall alien leader.
"…but you saved my daughter and me. And I can't thank you enough. I had no idea how she felt about you." Nancy continued, glancing to Cassandra.
"She kept saying you would come. She never stopped saying you would come."
As she started to cry, her boyfriend strode over to her and put his hands on her shoulders. Nancy wiped away a tear and then realized she had the blanket still in her hands.
Without hesitation, she walked over to the alien and sleeping Cassandra and put the blanket over her body. She eyed the alien leader one more time, offering him a thin, awkward smile and walked away.
Barely a few feet from them, Kelly suddenly turned back, breaking her grip free from her mother's hand and without any reluctance, she strode confidently over to the alien leader and wrapped her arms around his neck, barely reaching her small frame around him.
"Thank you," she said to him from a child's hug.
R'chnt held still and stiff, apprehensively rigid and eyeing the humans nearby who simply stared in gape-jawed amazement.
Kelly's elbow nudged Cassandra's head as she moved her arm around R'chnt's neck, which roused her from her sleep.
K'Shai smiled widely, feeling more rested. Although she wasn't sure how long she had even been out, there was a definite comfort she found from sleeping tucked into R'chnt that made her rest easy. She patted Kelly's back and the girl turned to her.
"Are you OK?" She whispered to Kelly and embraced her, pulling her away from the clearly uncomfortable R'chnt. It was a look that perhaps only K'Shai could recognize, but to her, his apprehension was just as clear as was the onlooking humans'.
Kelly nodded and Cassandra released her and offered her a small smile.
"OK, go back to your mom, now, alright?"
As the girl ran off, K'Shai couldn't help but to offer R'chnt an amused and grateful smile, as she lowered her eyes respectfully to him. She glanced around and caught Lewis and Carlos' amazed stares.
One of the Yautja nearby, also looking on in silently tense amazement, audibly questioned R'chnt's apparent gravitational pull on human females, and the Yautja group, including K'Shai, had a good chuckle.
He wrapped his arm back around K'Shai and she reached her own arms around him, kissing him firmly on his lower jaw, and whispering in his ear words that Lewis could not hear nor understand.
After hours of much needed rest, morning light surrounded the group as they took, slowly, to the streets once again, moving on to a new location to find a place to camp.
Cassandra kept up with the human group, walking painfully on a sore leg that offered no relief. Carlos tended to her needs as best he could. The hunters splayed out in a wide formation, sometimes blocks away, cloaked and well out of sight, surveying their surroundings and checking miles of terrain for signs of the alien animals.
Lewis walked carefully near Cassandra, trying hard to make sure he didn't appear to be too close to her, out of sheer nerves.
He and Cassandra shared a few, brief, and awkward conversations, in which she assured him multiple times that R'chnt would not harm either he or Carlos. K'Shai wanted to talk to her dear friend more about R'chnt, but she found it far more difficult to find words than she had thought.
What she had been carefully tiptoeing around secretively for months keeping silent, had now suddenly turned into common knowledge and she felt as though she was surrounded by unwanted gossip and wayward stares.
As the afternoon dwindled down and the group made their way into an apartment complex, Cassandra separated completely from the human population and spent a few final moments with R'chnt before he left to continue the hunt.
Alone, she rested in an apartment, listening to the sounds of the rest of the group in the hallways and the neighboring units when a knock on the door caught her attention.
Lewis and Carlos appeared inside the room before she could even get up off the sofa near the window she was staring out, surveying the night. They both clearly glanced around the apartment immediately looking for any company.
K'Shai smiled at them as Carlos tended to her injuries again while an awkward conversation followed. It was obvious to K'Shai that her friends were doing the best they could to try to process, and even accept, the most unusual situation that was presented to them.
The days ticked by slowly. K'Shai's bruises turned a variety of colors before they began to slowly disappear. Her leg eventually stopped hurting so much. The cauterizing agent, heavily diluted for use on her far more delicate skin, ensured that she would neither bleed to death nor get any infection, but it did not stop the pain.
She limped around as the days passed, but slowly the pain began to dissipate. She found herself refraining from keeping the company of the rest of the group for the most part. At meal time, she would take a plate and leave, to keep watch elsewhere.
She spent most of the days and well into the night both recuperating from her injuries and keeping watch. Lewis and Carlos seemed wholly unsure of what exactly to say to her, making for uncomfortable silences.
Five days passed slowly and there remained no sign on R'chnt or the rest of his group. It was sometime in the latest hours of the daylight that Lewis and Carlos found Cassandra on the roof of the apartment building, silently keeping watch all around the area as far as she could see.
"Not hungry?" Lewis asked, noting her uneaten food on a plate next to her.
Cassandra flinched slightly at the sudden break in the silence and looked up at him with a soft smile.
"No, I guess not. I had enough. You want to finish it?" She offered him what was left of her food, which he took, but did not eat.
"Quiet up here." He said blankly. "Been quiet all week. No sign of… of anything."
Cassandra remained motionless, staring into the setting darkness.
"No, nothing." She muttered finally after a brief silence.
Lewis crouched next to her and propped a hand on her shoulder. He took a deep sigh and watched her watching the streets, the buildings, the distances near and far, certain she was not looking for any bugs.
"Do you… uh…" he started to ask, through an uncertain voice. "Do you know…where he is?"
Cassandra shook her head slowly.
"You don't have a way to contact him?"
She remained quiet and Lewis considered that for moment.
"How do they manage to find us? How did he get to…. you in time?"
She glanced at him, her lips pressed together in a wide smile.
"Because he's a hunter." She responded certainly.
Lewis nodded and released a deep breath, smiling courteously. It was obvious to K'Shai that his mind with churning with unanswered questions he didn't even know how to ask.
She imagined she knew what those questions were, without a doubt. Lewis would want to know exactly what was going on, and for how long it had been happening at the very least.
She filled him in on most of the details in the cool autumn night, as Carlos eventually joined them. They talked for a long while until finally K'Shai parted ways and returned to her claimed apartment to get some rest as another night with no sign of R'chnt passed on.
Around an hour before the sun came up, the sky was still dark outside and K'Shai heard a definite sound from somewhere in the close distance of the quiet apartment.
She opened her eyes and warily peered around the room as she sat up, holding her breath to hear the ever so slight shuffling sound when her eyes caught a slight hint of glowing green blood moving towards her.
She gasped and pulled to her feet, darting over to R'chnt's side as he dragged his way towards her, exhausted, weak, bleeding, and injured. She only just noticed a few other Yautja moving up the fire escape outside the windows, no doubt headed to the roof to rest and recover away from human eyes.
R'chnt and K'Shai found their way to the bed and he removed some of his armor so he could lay more comfortably. K'Shai helped him, clearly noting he was having difficulty breathing.
His wounds were still oozing some blood, although they had obviously been cared for previously. She looked him over warily and kissed him gently, watching him fall asleep in a few minutes with barely a spoken word to her.
He caressed her and offered her a smile and briefly told her through a whispering voice of the recent battle before he fell asleep.
K'Shai curled into him, careful to avoid his injuries. She managed a couple more hours sleep resting against his warm body, and woke up sometime after sunrise.
She sat on the bed next to him, watching him sleep, noticing how weary he appeared to her as his chest heaved with each raspy breath. She had not known him to sleep so deeply, as he seemed to always be on edge and have a keen awareness about his surroundings.
She watched him sleep and listened to him breathe. She didn't even hear the light knock on the door, but looked up when she saw the door opening and Lewis and Carlos stepping through, surprised looks on their faces as they glanced down the very short hallway into the bedroom and saw R'chnt lying motionless in the morning light.
She slowly pulled off the bed, trying not to disturb him and headed over to greet her friends.
"Sorry, I didn't…. I swear I knocked." Lewis started.
"Just came to take care of your leg," Carlos added in as though he needed to have validation for why they were there.
She waved dismissively and gestured to lower their voices.
"He just came back a couple hours ago." She whispered. "I've never seen him so exhausted. He's hurt. He didn't sleep at all for almost six days."
"They can do that?" Lewis asked with surprise.
K'Shai shot him a wide eyed glance and shook her head, clearly suggesting that it was far beyond normal exertion levels for him to stay awake for so many days straight.
"Is there… maybe something I can do to help him?" Carlos asked softly, glancing between K'Shai and R'chnt.
She shrugged and whispered uncertainly. "I don't...know…if he'll… let you."
Hearing the voices perhaps, or just rested enough for now, R'chnt stirred and sat up, grunting with the exertion. K'Shai returned to him and carefully asked him to let Carlos look him over, which he promptly rejected.
"I've had broken ribs before. I'll be fine."
K'Shai pressed her lips together in a contemplating smile and glanced back to Carlos. She could feel her
nerves tingling. It was difficult, she knew, for her closest and dearest friends to accept what was happening right before their eyes.
As she thought about it, although the friendship she had with R'chnt had taken months to build before it turned into something far more complex, Lewis and Carlos were just being hit with it all right at once.
She imagined if she was in their shoes, she would be reluctant and wary, too. She imagined it was a lot to absorb and could barely envision how unusual the sight of the two of them together must have been.
Carlos' offer was both an engrained nature in him and his way of demonstrating an acceptance of a most unusual situation.
R'chnt heaved again as he breathed deeply against the pain in his chest. K'Shai gazed at him and wrapped her arms gently over his shoulders, leaning in to him softly.
She whispered to him words Lewis and Carlos could not hear, but they watched as R'chnt pulled his upper mandibles apart into what they could only just barely assume was a smile as he spoke to her in his deep, resounding voice, and touched her face.
She smiled lightly and R'chnt lowered his gaze in an apparent nod. K'Shai glanced over to Carlos and waved him and Lewis forward. They approached reluctantly.
Carlos, obviously apprehensive, neared R'chnt and pulled his stethoscope free from under his shirt and cleared his throat as he awkwardly greeted the massive alien, while K'Shai smiled, half amused and half concerned.
Lewis nudged her elbow and caught her attention and whispered softly.
"Hey, he's not..uh…" he didn't finish the sentence, but he indicated to his own chest in an exploding manner with his hands. The gesture was well understood.
K'Shai shook her head quickly as Carlos reached to R'chnt's bruised and battered right side and palpated his thick skin with his fingers and reached the stethoscope across his back. R'chnt took and held a deep breath, holding back a grunt of discomfort.
"He's definitely got broken ribs. Three, maybe four breaks as far as I can tell." Carlos confirmed before K'Shai had a chance to speak.
"Can he understand us?" Lewis whispered, trying to hide his voice from R'chnt's keen ears.
K'Shai nodded as she watched R'chnt silently look between her and the two human males, clearly as uncomfortable with the situation as they were.
"Wait a minute, what's this?" Carlos pondered aloud.
He took a deeper look at one wound on R'chnt's back, and fished around through his medical case for an instrument. Carlos suddenly appeared more comfortable with the situation, and leaned in close to R'chnt.
Perhaps he was just distracted by the injury he was evaluating, K'Shai wasn't sure but he began to insert forceps into the wound on R'chnt's back, reopening an injury that was clearly trying to heal, while apologizing to the alien for the discomfort he was causing.
Carlos concentrated on evaluating the injury while trying not to cause too much pain to the alien Leader for fear of undesirable consequences. He pushed the forceps further into R'chnt's injury, through the skin and muscle and tissue, and grimaced with a perplexed hum before pulling the forceps slowly out.
K'Shai gaped her mouth in startled amazement as Lewis mumbled a soft curse under his breath. Carlos tilted his head and smiled in disbelief.
"Well that has got to feel better, at least." He said confidently.
Almost immediately R'chnt took a stronger breath and K'Shai reached for the end of Carlos' forceps. She grasped in her hand a long, gnarled, sharp, and broken off finger from a drone bug.
She held it up and looked at it and shook her head softly in amazement as she handed the snapped off extremity to R'chnt who muttered a surprised curse.
K'Shai smiled and in a few minutes longer, she saw her friends out.
"Thank you, Carlos." She said softly and offered Lewis a supportive squeeze on his arm.
K'Shai returned to R'chnt and after a short time, the pair rejoined the Yautja group on the rooftop where they shared a meal as the entire group, all battered and worn, rested.