It was nightfall when they found it; a large spring surrounded by boulders and vines. It was clear at the bottom and didn't seem to have any creatures in it. The cadets dropped down, exhausted. Corin had begun praying and giving thanks. After a quick, small meal, they began applying mud to one another's bodies and faces, covering themselves everywhere with the gunk they had longed for all day. Preferably, they would've rather just all passed out on the soft moss and grass, but knew they had to set up a decent campsite unless they wanted to be caught during the night.

Nina cut off a large branch from a nearby tree with her knife, then leaned it against a tree at waist height, tying it securely with rope. She dung out her parachute material and draped it over evenly, using two more long branches to tuck any excess material in and use it to serve as a floor. She used rocks and other things to hold them in place so they wouldn't slide inward. Nina did what she could to camouflage it, moving brush and other resources around it, especially the entrance.

Others with similar items made the same one-man shelters. Cadets without them worked on debris huts or lean-tos. It was slow work, but in the end they knew it would be well rewarding, if it helped to keep them alive. Standing away, especially in this darkness, the shelters would only appear as groups of bushes and piles of fallen leaves and sticks.

She began setting up traps with the wire around the campsite. Jarred looked at her, "Are you brain-dead? That stuff will only give us away. Lights will reflect off of it."

"That's what mud and rotting debris is for, you lout. We can cover the snares up. Plus do you want to wake up to find one of those things from earlier sniffing around here? Even if it won't catch one of them, maybe it can catch breakfast."

He didn't respond.

Nina was about to crawl into her shelter when she heard a psst nearby. Turning, she spotted Nick, the youngest boy. The other two were Don, Tessera's boyfriend, and Jacob. "What is it?" she asked quietly.

"Do you think we'll make it?" he asked.

"What?"

"Do you think we'll make it? That all of us will survive this and make it home?"

Nina would've moaned at the boy's hopefulness, if she had been cruel enough. Chances were next to zero of going back home, and slimmer still of anyone living through this. She was caught between flat-out lying and crushing Nick's spirit completely, which definitely wouldn't do them any good. The last thing they needed was another man mentally unstable for this. So she only said, "We'll see, I guess."

He knew that would be the final word on that conversation. "Well, night."

"Night." Nina slid herself in, taking off her jacket, balling it up, and using it as a pillow. She heard a rustling noise as Nick got into his own shelter. Everything was quiet once more save for the sound of insects. Clicking the safely lock on her rifle, she hugged it as if it was the source to all life.

There was no need to organize a watch system; everybody was too tired to be of much good if anything did show up in the middle of the night. It could wait until tomorrow, which was especially dreaded. Tomorrow could hold anything. A laser bolt in the back coming seemingly from nowhere. New aliens with just as much a hunger for killing as the Predators themselves. Death for anyone of them.

It was getting harder and harder for Nina to fall asleep, even though she knew she would need that extra stored energy and strength. She curled up as best she could, letting herself be swallowed by the warmth from inside. It was a surprisingly cool night. Eventually fatigue overrode panic, and she drifted off.

Nina snapped awake to the sound of hollering, nearly destroying her shelter as she startled and grabbed her rifle. After a moment, she registered it wasn't the sound of an attack. Confused, she poked her head out to meet morning rays of light.

The rest of the cadets were sitting outside of their own shelters, looking at the traps. Nina stepped out to see three struggling creatures snared. It one was rabbit-like, but a bit larger. She smiled and was about to cheer herself before remembering where they were. She silenced the others. Soon the only sounds heard was that of the animals trying to escape from their captures.

"How are we going to do it?" Nick asked, "You know, kill them."

"Are they even edible?" Jacob questioned.

"Well, the military survival books did say all mammals were edible, and that's definitely mammal," answered Colton helpfully.

Speaking for the first time since yesterday, Chase asked, "If we tried to get near them will they bite?"

Nina spoke up, "I don't think we should try to find out, not yet," she sighed, "Ok. We'll shoot them," some people begin reaching for their guns, but Nina then said, "Not now. Three of us will line up and do it just as one would in a military execution while at war. We'll fire all at once. If the Predators hear us, we may be able to confuse them into thinking less of us are together."

She pointed to Mike and Corin, who stood up next to her. All was silent as the group waited. The trio raised their guns and took aim at the creatures' heads.

Nina counted down quietly, "One…Two…Three."

The guns went off in unison, and three animals dropped dead. The group quickly hid behind boulders and thick tree trunks, taking there kills with them and hiding the bodies, waiting to see what happened. All was still.

The sound of a fired gun made the Youngbloods look up. The sound hadn't come from any of them. The second hunting party had gone in a different direction. The only other creatures close enough who had firearms with them were the humans. Cloaking, they went up into the trees and left to investigate.

They reached the spring within minutes, but saw nothing save mounds of leaves and rubbish. One jumped down, landing with a thump upon the earth. The cadets froze upon hearing him land. Those that could looked at the spot where the grass had smashed down from some impact.

The Youngblood leaned down and picked something cylinder in shape off the ground. It was an empty bullet shell. Standing up once more, he uncloaked. Once the others had jumped down, they did the same. There were four of them in total. Nina held her breath, her skin beneath the mud turning pale. It had only taken one to wipe out almost the entire group of commandos her father had been in.

The Youngbloods looked around for any other signs of the cadets' in that area. One of them walked over to one of the debris huts. That's we he began to poke at it with his foot. The mound felt a little hallow. He was just about to blast it when one of the others called him over. Blood from the rabbit-like things was still on the grass. Nina could've shot herself for not covering up the stains.

Sain'ja was among the Yautja at the spring. Where did you go? he thought. He ordered the other Youngbloods to scout around to see if the humans had run off. Since he was training to be an Elite, he outranked them. The three did so quickly, recloaking and hopping back into the trees. Sain'ja walked around the spring, looking for something to indicate another being's presence. He found no source of heat that would normally be there when a warm-blooded creature was close. He stopped and tried the other settings on his mask.

Nina was as still as a statue. The remaining Predator was standing on top of the boulder in front of her. As he turned and looked the other way, she silently tried to make herself smaller in between the rocks. She took in every detail of him, assuming he was the leader since the others had left to where he pointed. If she and the other cadets could fight back, he would be among the ones they would need to get rid of first. She hoped he couldn't hear her heart beating.

As dumb and terrible luck would have it, a small reptile climbed from the boulder onto his foot. Sain'ja looked down seeing the reptile's moving cold spot. He kneeled down and held out his hand, which the reptile climbed into. He paused with realization and looked back toward the rocks near him. Some of them seemed oddly shaped together. Reaching out with his free hand, he gently touched the rocks, tilting his head to one side. It was rough and wet, like the ones he had been running and standing on by the water, but it also felt a bit loose and squishy. Pressing only a tiny bit firmer he felt his finger sink into a thick layer of mud. From behind his mask, Sain'ja's face grew with suspicion. He put down the reptile and it scurried away.

Upon feeling a finger softly touch her arm, Nina closed her eyes shut, not wanting to see what would come next. As she felt another hand block the passage of wind to her face, she willed them open. His hand was centimeters away from her right cheek, although he was moving cautiously. She wondered if she could be quick enough to draw her machete and run him through.

Someone fired at the Predator, hitting him in the leg. Neon green blood soon began oozing out of the wound. Sain'ja howled and he looked in the direction of his attacker. Nina did as well. Mike stood there from his position behind a tree, holding his shotgun.

"Hey ugly!" he yelled then wiped off some of the mud concealing his face, "I'm here!" He fired again. "Nina, run!"

Sain'ja leaped over straight towards Mike, who turned and dashed off into the woods. Nina stood up, "Mike no! He'll kill you!" Sain'ja briefly looked behind him, just in time to see her stand. Never mind, he'd kill that one later. He sped up after his prey.

The cadets stood up and chased after him, each one holding a gun of some type.

Mike ran for his life through the tangled mess of the jungle. He had no idea whether he could outrun the guy or not. Back there, he had just been thinking of saving her. Nina was the only one who he knew could survive this nightmare. She was the daughter of the world's best commandos, she knew what they were up against, and she could make it.

Meanwhile, who was he? A boy who grew up with low grades in school, whose entire family had never been to collage, and who was only going to join the army to make a name and a life for himself. What did that matter here?

But there was one thing he learned as a cadet, and that was that sometimes you have to drop everything, quit thinking about some stupid reputation, and do what's right. He had learned that lesson the hard way.

At first when he went to the school, his whole mind revolved around making himself the absolute best. He trained during breaks, cut cold turkey on anything but healthy foods, and was overall a complete jerk to anyone who might've stood in his way. That included Nina. His first friend had foolishly been Jarred, who told him that she was stuck up, but was top of the class in practically everything. Meanwhile, he struggled during classroom sessions. Since she was always quiet, he believed Jarred. He couldn't stand the thought of it, and went along with whatever teasing Jarred did to her.

Then came the school's annual woodland race. He and Jarred were running through it together and believed they were well ahead of Nina, who actually had been saving her speed for later and was pacing herself. The two had been going as fast as they could until Mike tripped and sprained his ankle. Jarred helped him sit on a dead log on one side of the trail, but left him there.

Other cadets came and passed, looking at him, wondering what was wrong, and soon came Nina. She saw him and stopped. When he explained what happened- and acting very obnoxious about it- Nina bullied him into letting her help him walk, despite his protests. "Either I'm going to help you, or I'm going to smack you upside the head for being as stubborn as a bull," she had said. When cadets passed this time, they would ask as well, one or two offering assistance, but she refused and said she could do it herself.

When they reached the end of the trail, the only person waiting was their trainer. They had gotten dead last in the race. Mike originally felt guilty about causing her to lose, knowing how she felt about being picked out as a girl. The trainer told Nina to go to dinner and that he would explain to her other teachers and coaches why she missed her other classes. He had helped Mike walk the rest of the way back.

For a while, things went back to their usual course. However, this time he didn't pick on Nina, and even Jarred backed off for a few days. When he finally had the nerve to thank her after everything, she shrugged it off like it was nothing. However, they did develop a good friendship over the course of the next weeks, and had been friends since.

Now, as he ran, Mike thought as least he would make a sacrifice he knew all true soldiers were prepared to do.

Suddenly the ground dropped beneath him as he rolled down a steep hill. When he got to the bottom, he felt dizzy and sick. He also felt like he might have broken a rib. Then he heard something pound down after him, followed by a familiar clicking. Turning onto his back and shuffling with his feet and one hand, he moved away from the incoming Predator. He began firing his shotgun with the other hand, to no avail.

Sain'ja kept coming. Moving forward and closing in on his target. His wristblades shot out from one arm and his fists were clenched. Mike backed up against a tree and used it to help him stand up.

"Come on, you jacked-up crackhead," he taunted as he fingered his gun. It didn't fire. He had run out of ammo. "Crap!"

Sain'ja reached him and slashed his wristblades at the human. Ducking down, Mike moved around the other side and dropped his useless weapon, yanking out a large knife. He slashed at Sain'ja, who dodged the strike easily and gripped his wrist, twisting it painfully. Truly seeing how outmatched he was, Mike's eyes widened with fear.

"Crackhead," Sain'ja said in English before stabbing Mike through the chest.

"Mike! MIKE!" Nina yelled, racing down the obvious path the two had taken. The pair had broken enough branches and things during their chase it left a clear trail. The group saw the drop off ahead of time and made their way down.

They arrived on the sight, but the two had vanished. In place of them on the ground was a pile of guts, some small bone fractures, and a large amount of spilled blood, already starting to be feasted on by insects. Mike's pack and weapons lied there in the mess. Nina fell on her knees, too shocked and hurt to speak. He had died saving her life… Just like that, Mike was gone…

Unable to contain herself, Nina screamed in fury and pain, brutally swinging her fist at the tree. It throbbed after the impact. Corin walked over and held her, his eyes glistening. She gripped him tightly as she had done Dutch when she was six. Jarred seemed at risk of falling apart. Tessera was hiding her face and all the rest could do was stare.

"Let's find the body. We can do a search, he can't be far" Jarred said, starting to walk off.

Pulling herself together, Nina shook her head, speaking quietly, "N-no."

"What? We have to!"

"No. There's no point. The same thing happened to Hawkins, my dad's friend, and they never found his. Mike's gone…"

Another long silence. As if on some silent agreement, the cadets began digging a hole with their bare hands in front of the tree. Without touching anything, they used leaves to pick up what was left of their friend and buried the remains. Once all was done, Corin, Nina, and Jarred cut away the outer bark and carved into the wood of the tree, using it as a grave marker. It read:

MIKE ADAMS

1981-1997

FIGHTER, SOLDIER, FRIEND

WE MISS YOU

The group began trudging their way back up the hill towards camp, taking Mike's supplies with them. The Predators wouldn't think of them coming back to the spring anyway. Nina was the last to go, after carving a cross, gently kissing her finger tips, and placing her hand on his name one final time.

Sain'ja watched the humans leave from above, Mike's corpse hanging upside-down a few trees away so all of the blood would flow out. He had seen and heard everything. A small part of him felt, oddly enough, sorry for them. Definitely for the female who had screamed and seemed in a fit of rage at the time. This was strange, since they were no more than game. Sentient beings, yes, but still game.

He let the feeling go. It meant nothing to him anyway. Sain'ja went off in search of his hunting party. He would need to tell them of his discovery on the humans' tactics.