Prologue:

Hospital
Gunnison, Colorado
October 7, 2008

"Wolf!"

Elaina slammed her hand against the panel of Plexiglas, she was seated beside in the cabin of the helicopter as they were lifted higher above the hospital roof. Outside the storm raged on just like the two aliens below. The rain beat against the helicopter, and the blade above made a loud wet doof-doof noise as they rotated around at their fast pace. She slammed her hand against the glass a second time, feeling the sting against her open palm radiating up her forearm to her elbow. She turned from the scene of the two aliens fighting on the roof below them to look at their pilot and plead with her, "No! You have to turn us around!"

"You know I can't do that," the woman, Kelly, answered her gravely, over the roar of the propellers. Her voice was calm, despite the dire situation they were in. Despite the fear that reeked within the cabin of the helicopter, and the howling wind and pouring rain outside, despite everything they must have gone through to get here, her voice remained steady and even. Out of all of them, the woman had kept a rather level head, doing her best to keep everyone in line and following her directives, something her military background had trained her to do, in dire situations. Any other time and Elaina would have admired the woman's skills, but right now all she could think about was Warkha, fighting the predalien all by himself.

Elaina's hands fisted at her sides, her nails biting into her palms, painfully. She wanted to throttle the woman and force her to land the aircraft. Would she ever learn to keep her temper in check? For one insane moment, she considered pulling the door open and jumping out of the cabin. She was seated right next to it, her hand hovering not far from the handle that would release the lock. She only had to get it open far enough for her small frame to fit through, and she knew she could do it fast enough before even Lex could react.

But the fall would kill her. Even by some miracle had she survived the drop, she would have been useless in a fight, with the broken bones she was guaranteed to sustain from this height. Something her eyes reminded her of, before she did something stupid, when she looked back out the window. A part of her expected to still be hovering just above the rooftop, but already they were high up in the air. The pitch-black sky and dark thunderous clouds blotted out any light. The rain and wind blocked any sight of the hospital now, which was as small as a child's dollhouse. She could not see if Warkha was winning the battle, or if the predalien had killed him. Her mind tried to play the fight out, honestly believing Warkha would win and escape. That they all would escape.

Her vision blurred worse than the view outside through the rain, as tears burned at the back of her eyes, threatening to fall. They pooled along her lower eyelids, distorting her view more and making pain flare along her sinuses, as she fought back the sob that wanted to tear itself free from her throat. Raising a hand to the glass, she held it there, her heart breaking. She was abandoning them. Not just Warkha, but Ci'tde and Skl're too.

"Elli," Lex called, her voice barely raising over the sound of the helicopter blades roaring over their heads. They were so loud, one had to shout to be heard even despite the small space they were in. "Elli!"

Blinking at the sound of her name, caused the tears to finally fall, but she did not care anymore. She reached up and wiped them away as she turned from the window to look at her friend.

"I'm so sorry-" Whether she wanted to apologies for the mess they were in, or that they could not save everyone again, or perhaps because they had to leave the Yautjas behind, despite all they sacrificed for them, would go unanswered. A roar, impossibly louder than the helicopter propellers, cut her off. The group looked as one, watching out the window to one side of the helicopter to see an Airforce jet shoot pass them.

"Was that?" Elaina started to ask; her brows furrowed in confused. "That looked like a United States Airforce jet, right?" She looked over at Kelly for confirmation. The jet sped off without slowing, not even seeming to react to the sight of a helicopter flying out over the woods that surrounded Gunnison Colorado and headed in what looked like the direction of the middle of town.

For the first time since meeting the woman, Elaina watched as fear filled Kelly's expression. "Everyone! Hang onto something!" The words were barely out of her mouth, before there was a bright light, as blinding as the sun, brightening the darkness outside the helicopter.

"Close your eyes!" Dallas yelled uselessly, as everyone had already been forced to do so to avoid being blinded.

"What's happening!" Ricky shouted, fear evident in his voice.

Elaina was not sure what was happening either, but her hands reached out blindly to either side of herself to brace against the walls of the helicopter. Across from her Lex had done the same. The light became blinding, seeming to pierce their eyes behind closed eyelids. A roar more deafening than the jet and the helicopter blades combined, came rushing up from behind them.

Molly screamed, the other's voiced terror joining hers. The helicopter shuddered as the blast from the bomb rushed up to meet them. The aircraft dipped dangerously, and alarms started flaring up from the console, as Kelly fought the controls to keep them in the air. Their tail end swung around, eliciting screams from the group.

They dipped again, and the underside of the helicopter scraped the tops of several trees, followed by crashing into limbs and tree trunks. Red lights and blaring alarms came from the console, warning the group just how much danger they were in. Kelly did not have time to warn anyone to brace themselves before the ground rushed up to greet them. Metal crunched under metal, buckling inward from the rough landing. Under them, the landing gear wrenched free, and they rolled across the forest ground.

Elaina cried out, as she tucked her arms close to her body to protect herself. Over the shrieking sound of metal tearing and crumpling, she could not hear the others, her own screams drowning out little thought beyond her own fear. The blades made a terrifying noise as they chopped into the ground, only to snap off as they continued to roll several more times. They came to a final rest against the trunk of a large tree. The metal caved in from their jarring stop, as the tree held its ground, and officially stopped their destructive momentum.

Silence fell around them as the engine sputtered out and the blaring alarms cut off mid shrill shriek of warning. From upfront there was a cough, followed closely by a groan from someone in the back of the cab.

"-okay?" Kelly asked her daughter first, her voice breaking with all the dust and debris filling her lungs and she started coughing again. Clearing her throat, she asked a little louder, "Are you okay?" Beside her, Molly must have made an indication that she was fine, as the older woman's features visibly relaxed with relief.

"Just peachy," Dallas muttered from his seat, thinking she had been asking the question to everyone, before breaking out into a hacking cough himself, as the same dust and debris filled his lungs. The air of the cabin was filled with floating debris, and if one looked close enough, they would see there was smoke drifting out from the engine. "Ricky-," he cut off with another cough, his throat rough and his voice sounding as if he had gargled with sandpaper. "-you good? Lex, Elli?" He took a moment to clear his throat, his eyes watering some.

Elaina blinked her eyes open sluggishly at the sound of her name. She was sure she had blacked out there for a moment. At one point from when the helicopter started rolling to when it stopped, she just suddenly became aware that she was wedged up against the glass of the helicopter. The tree had nearly cut the aircraft in half, the metal torn open from the impact. She could barely make out Lex on the other side of it.

"Lex?" she croaked. The dust in the air had her coughing.

"Shit, we need to get out of here, I think the engine is on fire," Kelly said from up front. Her words were quickly followed by the sound of her kicking at what remained of the plexiglass on the door next to her. It took a few tried, before the damaged glass buckled outward, allowing her to clear the way for them to escape. "Come on Molly."

Kelly climbed out first, and then helped her daughter through the opening.

Dallas tried the door next to him, but it refused to budge. "Lex," He called to her friend, who had yet to say anything to Elaina's earlier enquiry.

"I'm fine," she answered finally, her voice sounding a little shaky.

Elaina breathed a sigh of relief, and she quickly climbed from her seat to check on her friend. Lex sat there, relatively unharmed minus a few new scrapes and cuts from the landing. Elaina imagined she looked just as bad after their latest near-death experience.

"Guys hurry up," Kelly ordered from outside. "The side door is stuck; you'll have to climb out through the front."

Lex sighed wearily, her gaze showing just how exhausted she felt. How she kept going, just showed just how strong her strength of will truly was. She had made it through Bovetoya Island, and now Gunnison. A rough helicopter landing would not be the death of her, not after everything she had already survived. Squaring her shoulders, she moved towards the front of the cabin to climb out the opening Kelly had made. Elaina looked over at Dallas to find him looking at the boy seated beside him.

Her eyes widened, and her hand flew to her mouth to cover her gasp. At first Ricky merely looked as if he was just sleeping, his body laying against the door across from them. But even with the thickening smoke from the engine, you could see that there was a piece of metal lodged into the top of his head.

Swallowing back the bile rising in her throat, Elaina reached for Dallas who stared at the boy in shock. As if he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"Dallas-" She started with his name, but he barely even flinched, even after she grabbed his shoulder. "Come on. We have to go."

She tugged at his shirt sleeve, pulling at him to climb to the front. They had to pass by Ricky, and Dallas moved sluggishly, as if he were a puppet with his strings cut. She had to help shove him through the small opening, calling out for Lex to help her. "Lex grab him- please just grab him, I can't-."

Both Lex and Kelly were grabbing Dallas' arm to heave him out the opening. For all the help her offered, he might as well as had been dead weight. Elaina braced her hands against the back of his thighs to help push him through.

"Got him!" Kelly called, letting Elaina know, they had him as he slid through the opening.

Elaina hesitated at the opening, her eyes squinting through the smoky haze. She had to cover her mouth with the collar of her top pulled up over her nose, as she wheezed. Her eyes caught sight of her fallen sword and the plasma gun Dallas had before. They laid discarded on the floor in the back.

"Elaina what are you doing?" Lex called from outside, her head appeared near the window.

Elaina moved back into the back seat, grabbing the two weapons. "One moment Lex," she said so her friend wouldn't worry. Looking once last time around the cabin, she spied a jacket from what might have been an EMT's, with the hospital logo on the back. She laid the weapons down onto the seat next to Ricky, doing her best not to look at the dead boy as she scavenged for supplies. Collecting the jacket, she used it to wrap the weapons up inside and hide them from view.

The smoke grew denser, and Elaina felt her lungs constrict, and she started coughing with a sharp hacking cough.

"Elaina!" Lex was at the window now, trying to climb back in to collect her now.

"I'm coming," she said on a cough, using the crook of her arm to cover her mouth and nose as she made her way into the front of the cabin.

Lex was there, reaching in to help her out. Elaina could not help but look at Ricky then, as she passed him a second time. Her eyes teared up and she knew it was not just from the smoke in the air. With her heart in her throat, she reached the window, and took Lex's reaching hand. Ricky was another death on her conscious. A whole town, she could not save, and now Ricky. How much more loss could she take?

"I've got you," Lex said with relief. With Lex's grip on her forearm, Elaina was able to climb out the opening.

She slid down over the nose of the helicopter and landed on two shaky legs. She staggered forward a few steps, and had it not been for Lex's hold on her, her knees might have buckled, and she would have hit the ground after such a jarring landing. Lex took a step back, giving her room once she stood steady on her feet. Elaina felt much like a newborn calf, all legs, and no balance.

With a nod of her head to Lex, she carefully stepped away from the helicopter, breathing in the fresh forest air. Lex watched her, as if to reassure herself that they were both alive, and that this was not some twisted up dream. A few feet away from them, kneeling next to a nurse log, Dallas had his hands over his face. His shoulders shook, and Kelly hovered over him with a hand against his back trying to reassure him. Molly was against her mother's side, her face buried against her hip as she cried her own tears. Lifting her head, Kelly looked at Lex and Elaina helplessly.

They all had lost someone, and no one knew how to comfort the other. Unfortunately, they were not out of the woods yet, either. Elaina looked away from the group, unable to see the evidence of her failure.

"Now what," Elaina whispered. What did they do now?

"We can't stay here," Lex whispered back.

"The military just bombed Gunnison. They will be sweeping the area to make sure nothing survived the blast," Kelly said from her perch over Dallas. It seemed getting back to business was what the woman knew how to deal with better than the emotional storm that surrounded her. Dallas had not said anything since discovering his brother's body, however, his hands slid away from his face and he stared out across the small clearing the helicopter had made upon landing. His expression was of one completely lost and defeated.

It was an expression they all wore in a similar fashion.

Elaina clutched the jacket in her arms a little closer to her chest at the other woman's words. If the military found them, they would want to take the items she had. They might not understand what it was, but she could not take the chance that they would confiscate them. Suddenly she remembered Ci'tde' mask. Looking down, she was relieved to see the item was still secured at her hip, having not been lost during the crash was a relief. Other than a little dusty and a few dings, it seems relatively unharmed.

Warkha had told her to find his ship. To call for his clan. She imagined she would need the mask to do all that. How she was to find or do what he asked, was another matter altogether.

"We can't let them find us," Elaina said with conviction. She lifted her head to look at Lex for confirmation.

The other woman nodded, for once not arguing with her decision to avoid the military.

"They can help us," Kelly argued with them. "We're in the middle of the woods, it would be better to stay put for now and let them find us."

Lex looked over at the other woman. "You three should stay here. The military will be able to take care of your wounds. But we were never here."

"What," Kelly asked with a furrow of her brow.

Elaina tugged at Lex's hand and with a jerk of her chin, pointed in a direction she was sure was in the opposite direction than Gunnison. Lex nodded in agreement, when she saw the movement, and the two started walking away from the wreckage.

"Wait!" Kelly shouted after them. "You two will get yourselves killed walking through these woods right now! What if those things escaped the blast?" Next to her, Dallas tensed, as if registering her words, and his eyes started looking around with worry.

Lex paused, her shoulders sagging with her exhaustion. "You are armed, and the military will be here shortly," she said while looking at them. She pointed east then, "The sun is starting to rise, and we are several miles from Gunnison, you will be fine."

"You can't just leave," Kelly argued, frustration entering her tone. She struggled from Dallas and Molly then, looking for her weapon, as if to Marshall the two women from leaving. There was a snap of a twig south of them, and the woman spun on her heels, her breath catching in her throat. Her eyes darted around, expecting it to be one of those creatures.

What stepped out had her sagging in relief. The female deer led her fawn through the brush, passing a tree within eyesight, but far enough away that they were not spooked by the human so close by. Turning back to the woman, she blinked in surprise. Where they once stood, the clearing was empty. Birds chirped overhead and a soft breeze blew through the treetops and rustled the leaves.

Now what?

She dropped to her knees next to Dallas, her body exhausted from all the night's events. Molly hunkered down as well, making herself as small as possible against her mother's side. Dallas reached over and took her hand and he looked over at the woman that had done everything she could to save them. Kelly gently squeezed back, and her other arm wrapped around her daughter's body. Finally, she leaned against Dallas' body then, for once relying on something else to help hold her up.

Lex and Elaina trekked through the foliage, weaving around fallen logs, and dense trees. They left the others and the wreckage of the hospital's helicopter behind them, without a backwards glance. They had lingered a little longer to make sure they were okay, before moving on.

In the distance, the remnants of Gunnison, Colorado smoldered, as military vehicles approached the remains of the small city.

Further still, at the crumpled ruins of the hospital, a single military vehicle came to a slow stop. The passenger door opened, and a man stepped out. He was dressed in military fatigues, much like the other men that disembarked the vehicle. He however was decorated in medals, that separated him from the others, and showed his rank. He eyed the wreckage with a thin press of his lips. His eyes narrowed as the sun started to rise in the distance and lit up the darkened sky from the east. The ground was still damp from last night's storm, which had stopped at some point after the bomb had decimated the city. More vehicles pulled in behind him, and several more military personnel joined him at the wreckage.

"Sir!" a man in fatigues saluted the older gentleman.

"At ease Williams," he said gruffly in return.

The younger officer relaxed his stance, his eyes briefly glancing towards the remains of the building. The only evidence of his disgust on what happened here was the slight tightening of his eyes and the brief frown that formed on his lips. He quickly washed the expression from his face though, hiding his displeasure with a cool disinterest.

"There is a Ms. Yutani on the COMM for you sir," he said, quickly recalling his reason for being there.

The older man scowled at the mentioning of the woman, but quickly turned on his heels to answer the call. Grabbing the receiver, he brought it to his lips.

"This is Captain Wilks, Ms. Yutani. What can I do you for?"

There was a brief pause, before a distinct feminine voice came over the line. "Captain Wilks, have you secured the area?"

Wilks glance over at his men, who had busied themselves with quarantining the area. Others had already started on excavating the wreckage.

"Yes, ma'am we have. Want to tell me what we're looking for, out here?" he responded by asking his own question.

He wasn't used to taking orders from a corporate woman. But his superior had told him to follow Ms. Yutani's directive to the letter. So here he was, having his team clear the wreckage of an American city, that had been wiped out. Gunnison was just a crater now in the middle of the state of Colorado.

No explanation as to why.

"You will know it when you see it," was her cryptic reply, before the line cut out.

Revised 3/13/22

Inky Out