The next chapter is posted! Enjoy :)
Yeyinde has been on this backwater world now for a week.
Within that time, he was able to secure three skulls from three good kills. This area definitely provided enough good game for him. So, he figures he may stick around the general area.
He also found the food here isn't so bad either.
The young hunter came upon some grazer animals that inhabit these woods. Some had antlers while others didn't. Yeyinde did learn a little about some other animals that reside here on this world.
Though he can't remember the name of all of them.
Either way, the grazers with antlers were quite tasty. Though he can't say he was crazy about this one small black and white creature that lifted its tail and sprayed some of the nastiest smelling odor he has ever encountered.
It practically made him gag when the smell crept up under his mask and assaulted his senses. And the young hunter made a mental note to stay as far away as possible from the foul-smelling animals.
They didn't look all that good to eat anyway. And they were too small as far as prey goes for consumption of a being his size.
At the moment, he was deep in the woods, currently finishing a meal. Afterwards he was going to set out for town and resume hunting. Yeyinde still wanted to build up his collection more.
Meantime in town...
A couple black SUVs pull up to a service station. And a couple men in uniform got out and looked around, surveying the area.
They were informed by some higher ups that something strange entered the area under their radar a few days prior. The radar picked up an odd shape craft descending very rapidly to the ground.
The flight patterns and the speed indicate it was no plane. And they sent out some people to check out the area. They were looking for something that could be a risk to national security.
One of the men went into the small convenience store to grab a coffee and some snacks. While the one he rode in with stayed behind and continued to look around the little picturesque beach town.
He felt his phone vibrate in his back pocket and took it out.
"Richison, here. Speak" The man said.
"Richison, it's Nash, have you started asking questions yet or get any leads to the mystery object that was picked up by our satellites and radar?" The other voice demanded.
"Not yet Sir. We just made it into town a few minutes ago. The traffic here is ridiculous. But we will start soon enough. Someone was bound to have seen something. An odd out of place object moving rapidly though the sky, had to be a little hard to miss." Richison replied.
"Alright, hopefully, we can find out something. The scanners and radars picked up an odd out of place signal from the strange flying object as it went down. What made it odd was that it's signal really scrambled the one in our scanning system and really fucked it up." Nash informed him.
Richison furrowed his brows in confusion.
"Strange, could an enemy plane or drone be capable of doing that?" He inquires.
"None that we're aware of here at the air force. It was a very strange and jumbled signal. Whatever it was, it was certainly meant to confuse and scramble tracking and navigating systems.
But before they were messed up, it showed a direct course and flight pattern to the area we sent you and the others too. So, we at least have an idea that it is in that it must've ended up in that general vicinity.
With any luck, maybe you'll be able to find it." Nash stated.
"Affirmative, whatever it is, we'll get to the bottom of it, Sir. And we will keep you updated." Richison replied.
Then he hung up the phone and waited for his colleague to return and the gas tank to finish filling up, so that they could get moving again.
During this time, one of the other men in the other SUV approached him.
"Sir, word from base?" He inquired.
"Yes Rinaldi, it was Nash. He told us what we're here trying to look for had the ability to really screw with the scanners, and the tracking and navigation systems. And they don't believe it was something any plane or drone was capable of doing.
The sooner we start questioning the locals, the better. Someone is bound to know or have seen something. And we will find out soon enough." Richison declared.
Right now, the only thing on their mind is if there was a threat to security, they needed to find it as quickly as possible and deal with it.
Natalie let out a yawn, as she sat out on one of the back porches connected to the small apartment building.
At the moment, she was currently working on a painting. It was on a free-standing easel next to a small round table where she kept her paintbrushes and paints.
It was a painting of a great white shark. She had been working on it now for the last few weeks.
Someone who saw her work at one of the local art galleries reached out to her and contacted her. They really liked her work that mainly consisted of sea life.
And they requested a painting of the large predatory fish she was currently painting. They were collectors and promised her big money for it.
So, here she was painting on this beautiful clear day on an 18'x24' canvas. She got the outline and the shading of the animal down over the blue ocean backdrop behind it.
And now, Natalie was working on the details.
She had been working on it for a couple hours when her phone went off, indicating she had a text message.
The young woman put the paintbrush down and grabbed her phone off the table. Natalie smiled when she saw it was from Rob.
"Hey, we still on for coffee tonight?" He texted.
She quickly texted him back.
"You bet! Same time, same place!" Natalie replied.
"Great! I'll see you then. By the way, how's the painting coming along?" Rob asks.
"It's coming along. Just started adding in the details. Don't worry, I didn't forget that you wanted to see a pic of the finished work when it's done before I give it to the collector. I'll snap a pic of it and show you as soon as I'm finished." She assured him.
Natalie let out a small chuckle when he texted her an image of a cartoon shark decked out in an inner tube, snorkel, and goggles, doing a silly dance.
"Are you implying that that's how you dance? If so, I definitely want to get you out on a dance floor as soon as possible one of these days." She teased.
"Just no electric slide. I look worse than Steve Urkle from Family Matters trying to do the Macarina dance." He replied.
She laughed again at his jibes.
"Ok, no electric slide then. We'll just stick with the Cha-Cha Smooth instead. Anyways, I got to get back to painting something that looks like it's going to hop off the canvas and eat me. I'll see you later ;)" Natalie replied.
"Later, beautiful :)" Was his last reply.
She was all smiles as she continued painting the rest of the afternoon.
Later that night...
Natalie practically jogged to the coffee shop that was only a few blocks from her apartment complex.
Here she thought she had enough time. And when she looked down to her phone mid-walk, she noticed she was already running ten minutes late. She mentally kicked herself for not checking the time before she left her apartment.
But she never would've guessed she left her place later than she thought she did. And she knew from early on that she wanted to walk the six blocks to the coffee place they agreed to meet at.
It really wasn't all that far to need to drive, and the humidity actually died down that day, so it really wasn't all that bad out.
When Natalie got there, she saw Rob leaning against one of the large viewing windows in front of the coffee shop. He looked up and smiled when he saw her. Amusement flashed through his eyes as he saw her in a slight disarray and was panting slightly.
"Uh oh, what did you do? I hope I don't have to lie to the cops now and tell them I didn't see anything." He lightly teased.
Natalie left out a breathless chuckle.
"You got me. No, I'm really sorry, Rob. I left my place later than I thought it was. And on my walk here I decided to check the time thinking I was going to be on time or at least a little early. And come to find out, I was running ten minutes late. So, I jogged the rest of the way here." She explained.
Rob let out a small chuckle at her explanation.
"Well, hey, at least you got your cardio in for the day." He replied.
"Cardio, yeah. Because I don't get enough of it doing other outdoor activities or running around waiting tables." She quipped.
"Look at this way, an iced coffee will cool you right off. And if that's not enough, they have a good gelato selection in there too." He offered.
Her smile widened, "After that run, I could definitely use both." Natalie replied.
Then the pair headed in together.
Yeyinde was perched on a ledge looking around down below.
So far, today was proving to be a pretty slow day for the hunt. But it wasn't over yet. He still had the rest of the night to find some good prey. The sun had only disappeared over the horizon about a half hour ago.
Which was fine with him. He preferred to hunt at night anyone. It gave him extra coverage. His brother also told him that sometimes criminal activity was more active at night too.
Since he been here, there was some truth there. Most of the oomans he engaged these last several days have been in the late evening into night hours on this world.
He made one more sweep with his gaze down below, before he stood up and decided to move on. This area wasn't all that big, but it wasn't ridiculously small either. And there was always bound to be action somewhere.
A little further downtown...
"So, you say you saw a small unknown stream of smoke coming from a strange oblong shaped object in the sky? And what date and time was this?" Richison asked, with pen and paper in hand.
The young man was unsure about this witness. He was eighty-two years old and retired and spend majority of his time on his porch. According to his wife, he was always out there either reading the paper or using in quote; 'those damn binoculars' of his to spy on everyone and everything area the general area. He sometimes would us them to look up into the sky at night too.
"It was I believe last Saturday around mid-morning. I had my binoculars that morning and was watching the seagulls in the surf." He said.
"Who the hell are you kidding, Roy?! You were using those damn things to look at the bikini clad young women and we both know it!" Yelled his wife from within the house.
Richison rolled his eyes, while the other three men with him were trying not to laugh as they all stood on the old man's front porch.
"Shut up, Ethel! You don't know what in the hell you're talking about, as usual! Go back to watching your damn Soap Operas and let me talk with these guys in peace!" He shouted over his shoulder inside.
The old man grumbled and turned to face the four young men in uniform.
"Take my advice fellas, never get married. The day you do, is the day you lose whatever sanity you have left." He stated.
Richison cleared his throat, "Anything else you can recall of the events that day, Mr. Russo? Did you by any chance see which way it headed?"
"Yeah, it looked like it may have touched ground somewhere in the woods right outside of town. Not near any of the recreational parks mind you. But the area that is still heavily wooded and there are no clear paths through it." Old Mr. Russo replied.
"And which part of the woods would that be from this location? North? South? West? Any ideas?" Richison droned on.
"It was northwest of here. If I had to gather, it looked like it hit the ground a good couple miles out into the woods. If you do decide to head out that way, good luck getting out there. Because I'm telling you, there are no clear wooded paths or roads that lead out that way. They refuse to build anything out that way because they claim they want it to remain a type of sanctuary for the animals that live out there." The old man stated.
"Alright, thank you for sharing this information with us, Mr. Russo. And have a good day." Richison said.
Before the men could leave though, Mr. Russo spoke up again.
"I hope you packed a lot of fire power with you too." The old man croaked.
"Pardon?" Richison inquired.
"The shape of that object I saw, it looked unnatural. If I had to guess, it was some kind of UFO. Before we know it, little green men will infiltrate this town one of these days. Mark my words. It's why I still carry my shot gun and a couple pistols." He stated.
"Goddammit you old windbag! Would you shut up about those damn little green men! You've been preaching about Martians coming here since the 1980s! Give it a rest already!" His wife shouted again from the living room by the front door.
"No one asked you, you old hussy! Mind your own damn business!" Mr. Russo said, as the front door shut behind him as he went back inside.
The four men finally decided to leave the circus behind and move on. But that didn't stop at least one of them from barely being able to muffle his laughter behind his hand.
"Meyers, knock it off. This is official business here." Richison snapped at the one who was trying to muffle his laughter.
"So, what do you think? I mean he maybe a crazy old guy who's a bit of a pervert. But he's also the fourth witness to come forward with seeing a line of smoke in the sky trailing from a strange oblong metallic object. And the second one to mention it appeared to have crashed in the woods a couple miles beyond town." Rinaldi stated.
"Yes, though the stories aren't similar to a 'T', it still seems odd they all reported something with a strange similar shape flying across the sky." Meyers added.
"Do you think we should call this in, Sir? Or did you want to interview more witnesses first?" Berrara asks.
"I don't think we should call anyone in, until when and if we can find something. No point bringing more people down this way due to a few statements by a small handful of witnesses. Plus, we did bring some sufficient guns with us just in case we did come across any spies or enemies. And if there are any, they still maybe out in those woods somewhere with whatever it was that came out of the sky. The shape and size of the object according to witnesses sounds like it was big enough to contain at least one of two people." Richison deducted.
Later that night...
Natalie and Rob walked out of the coffee shop. Both of them sporting smiles.
"That was fun. Especially, when you got brain freeze from eating gelato too fast. The face you made; it looked like you were trying to hold in a massive shit." She said, with laughter in her voice.
"Hey, it happens to the best of us. Don't think I didn't see you miss your mouth and drop some gelato on your lap." He teased back.
Her face grew a little red at that. At least she had a napkin on her lap so none of her chocolate gelato got on her shorts.
"Ok, you got me there. We both dealt with a couple bloopers tonight. Shall we see how many more we can have the next time we meet up?" She teased.
He smirked, "Ok, let's see who can stomach the most popcorn at the movies, say...next Sunday?"
"You're on." Natalie says, as she sticks out her hand for him to shake.
Rob let's out a small chuckle and shakes her hand, as if they were saying let the best man win.
"You sure you don't want me to drive you back home, Nat? It is pretty late." He asked.
She just shrugs, "Nah, it's really not that far from here. Besides, I need to walk off this iced coffee and gelato."
He nodded, "Alright then, see you at work tomorrow."
Natalie smiles, "Yeah, see you tomorrow, Rob."
They said their goodbyes and parted ways.
Then she proceeded to walk the six blocks back to her apartment. It may have been near midnight, but it was still really warm out and had gotten a little muggy too within the last few hours.
Yeyinde was still on the lookout as he patrolled the rooftops and some of the alleyways that had very little activity in them.
He was going at it for a while now. Until he heard shouting coming from a nearby alley down below. The young hunter followed the shouts that were coming from a couple blocks down.
The yautja landed on a roof and walked over to the edge where it was much louder, and he can clearly start to make out words.
Yeyinde crouched down and watched the scene below. There were four ooman males, and it looked like a couple of them were arguing about something. He also noted that they were armed. There guns strapped to their belts.
"I won't ask again, Stephen. Where the fuck is the rest of the money you owe me!?" One guy shouted to a guy standing across from him.
"I told you Omar, I'll have the rest of it by Monday!" The man known as Stephen yelled back.
"Don't give me that shit! You told me you would have it all by Friday! Which was yesterday!" Omar fired back.
Meanwhile, Natalie was enjoying her walk back home. It was surprisingly pretty quiet out here tonight. Not too many people were out and about. They probably were scared off by the weather forecast from earlier.
It said eighty percent chance of thunderstorms were supposed to occur around this time.
Natalie can believe it. It started getting very cloudy out here about an hour or so ago. And it felt like it was going to downpour very soon. Perhaps she should speed up her walk so not to get caught in the rain.
As she drew closer to an alleyway, the young woman thought she heard someone shouting from further down.
Curiosity got the best of her, and she slowly approached the darkened alleyway. She peaked her head around the corner but couldn't see anything passed a large dumpster against the wall a couple yards down that was blocking the view.
She started to walk down the narrow corridor between the buildings.
A part of her was screaming this wasn't a good idea. But Natalie was wondering what all the ruckus was about. She got to the large dumpster and peered around it.
She noticed there were three large men and one smaller gangly looking one. They all seemed to be quarreling about something.
"Look, I'm sorry, man. But my pig boss was late with my pay again. It's not like I asked for it to happen. I swear, I'll get it from the bastard on Monday once I get to work in the morning." Stephen said, convincingly.
Natalie only heard maybe parts of the conversation because she was still a good twenty or so feet away from the group.
Then she saw one of the three men who had their backs to her reach behind him and push aside his loose leather jacket. Her eyes widened when she saw him grab what was clearly a gun from his waist band.
Before she knew it, there was a loud bang that partially lit up the alley.
The young woman cupped a hand over her mouth and retreated back behind the dumpster. When she did this, she accidently stepped on a discarded soda can on the ground.
It made a loud echoing sound as her sneaker hit and it lightly rolled down the asphalt.
The three remaining men whipped around when they heard it. The other two pulled their own pistols out from their waist bands. They know the noise came from about twenty to twenty-five feet down the alleyway. And it sounded like it came from behind the one lone dumpster against the wall back there.
As they started walking down, something dropped down behind them with an audible thump.
Yeyinde saw the whole shooting unfold. He also noted a somewhat smaller heat signature a little further down, ducking behind a large rectangular object that held trash.
They made a sound that drew all the males' attention away from the body of the fourth male one of them shot. And he watched as they drew their guns and went to go investigate.
That's when he decided to make an appearance.
The three men quickly turned around when they heard something large and heavy land several feet behind them in the narrow passageway. They squinted their eyes to see what it was.
It was pretty hard to see in the dark though, and this area wasn't lit up all that well from the streetlights on the neighboring streets beyond the alley.
One of them thought they caught movement as something rose from the ground.
"Who's there!?" One of them snapped.
Instead of another voice though, they were met with a loud, menacing growl that couldn't have come from any human.
Natalie furrowed her brows. She heard it too.
'The fuck was that!? A lion!?' Her mind screamed.
The young woman was still crouched behind the dumpster, barely making a sound or moving.
She did however jump in alarm when she heard screaming and some more shots being fired. When Natalie heard this, she so badly wanted to run and get out of there. But she was scared that if she left the safety of the dumpster, she'd get shot.
Meanwhile two black SUVs were driving through town.
They wanted to see how far they could make it through the woods and if they can do so without assistance.
The windows were down as they drove down the quiet street. Or so they thought. Then they heard the distinct sounds of gunshots going off a little further down on their left.
Richison stuck his hand out the window and pointed to his left, signaling to the car behind him that they were going over that way and to follow them.
Yeyinde pulled out his net gun and launched it at one of the men. It opened up and forced the man back into the brick wall. Where it proceeded to tighten around the screaming man, cutting deeply into his skin.
It kept tightening until it eventually went all the way through him. And a few moments later, what was once a man know looked like a pile of ground up ground beef on the ground.
The other two men started to freak out. But they didn't stop shooting at the strange being that they still could hardly make out int the dark. It was almost like he was invisible. They couldn't even make out a shadow. Though they swore they saw something rippling and shimmering in front of a small sliver of light that came from a streetlamp all the way down the other end of the alleyway.
Natalie still couldn't get herself to move or look at what was happening on the other side of the dumpster behind her.
The black SUVs came to a stop at the other end of the alleyway, and they could see the outline of two men shooting at something. What they were shooting at; Richison and his men have yet to see.
Until one of his men saw something long and metallic appear from a third unknown person.
"Look! What the hell is that!?" Meyers asked and pointed.
The other three looked more closely and saw someone or something holding a long thin metal object. They saw it twirl around a couple times before it came baring down on one of the armed men.
Then the four men heard a sharp short roar as whatever it was impaled the man on the end of the sharp object. The last man took out a few more shots at it. And one of the shots must've hit whatever it was.
Because the four men saw something bright green splatter off of it.
Richison sharply turned to the other three men.
"Go into the cars and pull out the big guns." He ordered.
Meyers and Berrera ran to their SUV and started pulling out some rifles from the back seat and trunk.
Richison then turned to Rinaldi.
"Rinaldi, I believe I have a tranq gun with several rounds in the glove compartment. Go and get it now!" He barked.
"Yes, Sir! Right away!" Rinaldi said and ran back to the car parked a few feet behind them on the street.
Richison watched a little longer as this...man engaged with the one man who was still standing. Which was only another several seconds. Then he too collapsed to the ground in a heap, dead.
That's when he ran back to the SUV, forced open the trunk and pulled out one of his heavy duty shot guns.
He signaled for his men to breach the alley on the double.
Yeyinde didn't notice the four newcomers right away. He had literally just finished killing the last man when he heard a few more shots ring out behind him. And he felt a sharp pain as one of the large caliber bullets became lodged in his calf.
He whirled around with a growl to face them.
Another shot rang out. And this time, one of the bullets hit one of his wrist gauntlets. It made the cloak deactivate and now he stood before them completely visible.
"WHAT THE HELL!? WHAT IS THAT THING!?" Rinaldi yelled.
"Shoot now ask questions later! Now take him out!" Richison said.
All four of them started shooting at once.
It was a total firestorm of large caliber bullets. Some hit Yeyinde's armor and ricochet off it while others actually hit bare skin. They tore into him leaving pretty huge holes as they went.
And before the young hunter knew it, he fell back and went through the brick wall of the building. He became slightly buried under the debris.
The four men quickly moved in and surrounded the hole the creature made in the wall. When they saw it trying to struggle to its feet, Richison pulled out the tranq gun and unloaded two large darts into its unprotected midsection.
He let out a small, agitated roar and he still fought to stand back up.
Then when Yeyinde tried to stand among the crumbling rumble, he felt another sharp pinch as they unloaded a third dart into his exposed abdomen. Not long after he started to feel strange.
He somehow managed to stand. But he suddenly became unsteady on his feet. His whole body felt like it was slowly going numb. And when he tried to take a few steps, he fell to his hands and knees.
The young hunter refused to give in though. He still tried to fight to stay alert and get back on his feet.
Then his eyesight started to darken in the corners and his body began to weaken. He clumsily reached for his wrist comp. but before he could press any buttons, he fell onto his side.
A few moments later, everything went dark.
Natalie pulled her shaky hands from her ears. Tears were now streaming down her cheeks. It became eerily silent. And she finally found the strength to slowly rise to her feet.
She placed a hand on the dumpster to steady herself as she moved around it.
The young woman noted there were four men. And they despite the darkness, she could just about make out in the small hints of light streaming down the alleyway that they were nicely dressed.
One of them caught movement out of the corner of his eyes and whipped around and trained the rifle on her.
Natalie let out a small, startled scream when he did this. And it alerted the other three men to her presence. The man who had his gun trained on her lowered it.
"Shit, we got a civilian here. And I think she saw everything." Berrera hissed.
"What shall we do with her, Sir?" Meyers asked, Richison.
Richison didn't answer. Instead, he raised his tranq gun and shot the young woman.
Natalie let out a pained yelp as the dart hit her midsection. She slowly looked down and saw a dart sticking out of her stomach. A shaky hand rose to pull it out.
Her gaze then slowly rose to the group of men in front of her again. They all just stood there watching her.
She turned around and tried to make a run for it. But before she could make it to the exit, her vision began to blur and darken. Then she lost control of her limbs and collapsed to the ground.
Natalie hit the asphalt hard with a pained grunt. Then her light eyes slowly rolled to the back of her head and closed as she passed out.
"Sir? What did you do that for?" Rinaldi asked, clearly surprised.
Richison quickly turned to him.
"I had to! She witnessed the whole thing. This is something big! And protocols for something like this states there cannot be any witnesses!" He snapped.
Then he turned to one of the others.
"Meyers, you grab the girl. Berrera, you help me, and Rinaldi grab this huge bastard and get him to the car. We also need to restrain him and keep him sedated for the ride back to base. Now move!" He ordered.
"Yes, Sir!" They said in unison.
Meyers grabbed the petite young woman and carried her to the SUV. He couldn't help but agree with how Rinaldi felt about this in thinking it was wrong shooting this woman and then taking her.
But Richison was the one with the higher authority here. And they had to follow his command.
The large man like creature was a little problematic. It took a great deal of heft for the four men to move him. The guy had to be at least 7ft 1in tall and weighing well over three hundred pounds. Not to mention maneuver him to fit into the SUV with all the gear on him.
After about ten minutes of straining and pushing though. They were able to do so.
Then they heard police sirens quickly getting closer to their position. So, they all hoped into their vehicles and sped off, just as three cops cars peeled around the corner.
Until Next Time ;)