Muscles bunched painfully as Jesse sat up slowly from her folded arms on the metal table. She didn't know how long she had been in the interrogation room, their captors were good enough to not have a clock in the room. Fucking assholes.
Hoping against hope she stood and went to the door, trying the knob.
Locked.
"Damnit." She hissed.
Thoughts turned to A'luet. She was certain she and Ricky were safe for the moment, the predator was a different story. What were these people doing to him? Was he even still alive? How had the government found out he was even still alive? She and the others had been playing camping for almost a week.
Knowing it wouldn't do any good, she grabbed the knob anyway and yanked on it a few times, wishing she was strong enough to break the lock. A'luet and P'sy could have done it. Images of A'luet's fist indentation in the metal frame of the elevator at the hospital ran through her mind. He undoubtedly was a lot stronger than any human, him and P'sy.
With a frustrated growl she stomped back to the table and sat in a huff.
Time dragged as she sat dreaming up revenge for the next time the door opened. She was just imagining her interrogator's head smashing through the table by a well-placed punch from A'luet when the lock unclicked.
She took a sharp breath, ready to resume her combative behavior for the next asshole. She stood up and paused.
In the doorway the security officer had a look of disgust followed by apprehension. Ricky appeared by the man's shoulder, holding his pistol.
"My brother didn't get into trouble and go to prison for nothing…" He grunted. "Taught me a few things along the way."
Jesse winced as the gun made a heavy connection to the back of the guard's head.
Ricky glanced up. "Let's find A'luet and get the hell out of here."
Looking at the prone man, Jesse sputtered. "Someone's going to see. There's cameras everywhere Ricky."
"Then let's not waste time." He grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the room. "We can't get out, but I'm betting A'luet can."
…
A small group of soldiers sat in the far corner of the room, staring at the alien sitting not unlike a human on the floor with his legs causally drawn up, elbows propped on his knees. A'luet was content to stare back, his tactic enough for someone to whisper something questioning. No doubt the soldier wanted to make sure the big, bad alien couldn't get out of his cell.
Not without his equipment he couldn't but he was fine with letting them wonder.
He pulled in a breath and let his thoughts wander to P'sy. Had the yautja realize they were missing yet? His cell had no windows and no way to discern what time it was. How long had they been gone?
The tranquilizer knocked him out for a while but not as long as the oomans expected. About the time the drug's effects were wearing off in some large room, not unlike a laboratory, someone flooded his IV with more sedatives. Next thing he knew he woke up in the cell he currently occupied.
Motherfuckers.
He considered causing a disturbance that would get his jailers' attention and bring them to him; from there he could snap their necks through the cell door bars. His gaze switched to the door, where there was thin crackling of an electric current, it couldn't be worse than what any yautja had for security.
There was a scuffle at the end of the hall, out of A'luet's sight, startling the guards. He waited a moment before curiosity got the better of him and stood up, drifting to the cell door.
"Yeah. You know what that is…back up."
"Hey." Jesse lost no time going to A'luet, her thin fingers about to wrap around the bars.
He growled and gestured for her to stop.
She paused, her thin face growing concerned as she eyed the bars, hearing the electricity crackling. "It's electrified."
"You." Ricky pointed his gun at the first soldier he met eyes with. "Get him out, now."
"What the fuck did you ask? I can't do that I won't."
"Yeah, you can and will…. Now."
No one moved.
BANG.
Jesse jumped as a spark shot across the floor by the soldiers' feet.
"Next one will be between the eyes."
"Just fucking do it man." One soldier said. "You were just questioning the higher-ups' motives."
The man's eyes darted to A'luet.
….
Colorado National Forest
"I can't leave her here alone Dallas. How can you expect me to do that?"
"Well, we can't bring her with us either, so what the hell are we going to do?" Dallas glanced at P'sy standing outside, carefully cutting the makeshift stitches on his abdomen. "And we're gonna piss him off, standing here and arguing about it Kel."
Kelly gave a frustrated growl. "My brother lives nearby. I can drop her off there."
"How far?" P'sy entered the cabin unbeknownst to them.
"You're okay with me doing that? It's going to take more time from getting to A'luet"
The predator's blank mask stared at her. "I'm not a total asshole. I'm in a hurry but I don't expect you to abandon your child in the middle of a national forest."
Gratitude crossed the woman's face. "Ohio City, he lives in Ohio City. It's about a half hour-"
"The old mining town?" Dallas asked. "There's barely anything there."
"Sounds like my kind of place." P'sy picked up A'luet's combi-stick, pausing as he ran his hand over its smooth handle.
"We're going to get him, you know."
P'sy barely glanced up. "Yeah." He slid the weapon into the sheath on his back. "Let's go."
He was opening the SUV hatch when Kelly appeared next to him. "You're not cargo you know."
"What's your point?"
Her eyebrows rose. "My point is you can ride in the backseat next to Molly, like a normal person." With a friendly smile she left him to get into the passenger seat.
He stayed put for half a second before slamming the hatch shut and rolling his eyes. With a low, irritated growl, he pulled himself into the back seat.
Molly watched him, fascinated, then she gave him a small smile as Dallas turned the ignition.
P'sy spared a moment to be thankful his biomask was still functional and could hide his face, he was well aware of his strange biology compared to these fragile creatures. Yautja weren't able to smile in the same way a human could. He was sure he'd resemble a leering Halloween dummy to the kid. Besides, smiling and happy expressions wasn't something P'sy indulged in often.
The trip was quick, the highway almost deserted, pavement was choppy, some roads dirt.
"Turn here."
The vehicle veered right and jolted hard from the potholes littering the driveway, if it could be called that. P'sy grit his teeth to stop his jaws from rattling and gripped his door.
"Has this person ever heard of fixing his driveway?"
Kelly grinned. "He's a little off…not very handy, but he's good with Molly." Then she lost her smile as the SUV came to a sliding stop. "You should probably stay in here…"
"You think?"
"I'll be back. Come on Molly."
Man and Predator watched the two climb uneven steps onto a rickety porch.
"She's something."
P'sy didn't answer, he wasn't sure if Dallas was looking for one.
"You know, I haven't thanked you yet."
"For what?"
"Saving me and them." Dallas turned in his seat. "You could'a just grabbed that gun-thing and ran."
P'sy shrugged. "I could have. The kid's righteous attitude has rubbed off."
Dallas snorted. "He's been through a lot?"
"Yeah. That obvious?"
"Takes one to know one, for what it's worth, thanks for coming from where ever you're from."
P'sy shifted, watching Kelly with her daughter as the front door cracked open. "Why are you thanking me? Your town's been obliterated off the map."
Dallas lifted his head off his head rest. "You didn't do that. Our own government did… besides you didn't fail, we're alive."
"Five out of how many?" P'sy paused, his head tilting. "You got to be kidding me."
Ahead a thin man with large glasses appeared, frizzy hair stuck out from under a shiny hat. P'sy narrowed his eyes.
"He's wearing a god damn tinfoil hat? Am I seeing this right?"
Kelly gave Molly a hug and started down the porch steps, before she reached the last stair the door was already shut, the kid having been yanked in like her safety depended on it.
"Ready?" She asked, the moment the SUV door was open. "What?"
"Your kid isn't going give him repressed fears of alien abductions and conspiracy theories, is she?"
"I told you he was off." She clicked her seatbelt. "Are we going?"
They drove in silence through the mountains, the landscape growing rockier by the mile. Finally Dallas pulled over.
"There a map in this thing?"
A spiral bound book poked out from under Molly's seat. P'sy bent for it, wishing he didn't as his chest muscles stung.
"Are you okay?"
P'sy straightened, book in hand. "Yeah, why?"
She hesitated. "You sounded like you were in pain."
He did? He didn't remember making any sound signaling he was. "I'm fine."
She didn't look convinced but dropped the subject as Dallas found Colorado in the road book.
"We're about here…." Dallas pointed. He shook his head. "Fucking hell-they could be anywhere."
"Ricky mentioned Area 51?" Kelly said, though her tone suggested she was having a hard time believing her own words.
"Ricky has read one too many sci-novels…" Dallas's eyes slid to P'sy. "No offense."
"Fine. What does your computer say?" She asked P'sy.
"I'm getting a reading near a town called Lake City."
Kelly straightened, staring out the windshield. "There is a place I've heard of but there's so little said about it, I don't even know if its true."
"What place?"
"Station Eleven… it's isolated and I heard there was a small outpost there. These people wouldn't go all the way to Fort Collins, that's a four hour drive and it was commandos who took them. They're equipped to shoot, tranquilize and bring a subject in quickly. They don't have the means to continually feed A'luet a sedative for four hours. And like you said, Area 51 is just stupid and stereotypical."
"It's mountainous there." Dallas shut the book. "Are we going to have to hike thousands of feet?"
"I don't know."
"Do you have a teleporter?" Dallas asked P'sy.
P'sy stared at him. "Is that a real question?"
"Yeah, you got that camouflage thing."
"All I have is the camouflage thing. The assholes chose a shit time to pull something like this because my gauntlet is broke. I'm lucky it still has the camouflage feature."
"Alright, no teleporter." Dallas sighed, earning a sideways glare from P'sy, one the human missed due to the biomask.
"Be serious about this." Apparently Kelly didn't appreciate the question either.
"I am. They got some serious technology behind them, unlike us. You never know."
Kelly changed the subject. "Lake City is about an hour and a half hour away. I'm not sure how much further Station Eleven is."
"An hour and a half?" Dallas turned the SUV's ignition. We can make it faster than that."
Kelly rolled her eyes. "Don't get us pulled over. I don't feel like having to bear witness to an alien taking out a cop."
….
Outside Lake City
Station Eleven outpost
The soldier slowly went to A'luet's cell, pointing in his face. Had he been another yautja A'luet might have retaliated for the rude gesture. "What is it?"
"He." Jesse corrected, terse. "And get moving."
"How the hell do you expect to get out of here?" The man asked. He scoffed. "Have you even thought that far?" He glanced at A'luet and immediately retracted his gaze. "It's staring at me… creeps me the fuck out."
"Then let him out and we'll get on our way." Jesse snapped. "Or are you stalling on purpose?"
"Excuse me?"
"Are you?" Ricky asked, glancing behind him to the door and the other three soldiers. "Did you press a button to alert someone?"
One of the soldiers stood and closed the distance. "Get him out Booker. We didn't sign up for this shit."
Ricky narrowed his eyes. What a strange comment to make if the place was only a military outpost. "What are you talking about?" He demanded. "Sign up for what?"
The soldier, only slightly older than Ricky, looked at him. "Sign up for this. This place is fucked man and the lady runnin' the whole thing is whacked." He paused. "Get him out or I will."
Ricky lowered his gun slightly. "A soldier with a conscience. Interesting."
A'luet backed away as Booker punched numbers on a keypad. With a click and a slight whoosh, the door opened. A'luet stayed where he was, not entirely certain someone wouldn't pull a weapon on him.
Jesse lost no time going to him, grabbing his hand. "Come on." He let her tow him out of the cell, by Booker and then the other guards. Jesse glanced down at A'luet's wrist, the one slightly scarred from his missing gauntlet. "Where's his equipment?"
They shrugged. Probably the laboratory… studying the-" Perreca, the soldier who demanded A'luet's release paused. "-mechanics of it."
"Where's that?" Ricky asked.
"You'll never get there. Too many checkpoints."
The conversation between the humans grew into white noise for A'luet. He slowly went to the door, peeking out carefully. Nothing but long hallways in both directions. He clicked, annoyed. It was pretty damn inconvenient to be without his gauntlet, caster, and biomask. He felt almost naked without it. He noticed the silence behind him. He turned to see the humans staring at him. The girl, Jesse, said something.
With a defeated tone, the soldier gestured.
"Do you have paper?" Jesse asked.
Perreca slid a notepad to her. "Knock yourself out." He and his comrades watched, interested, as she drew. Then she got A'luet's attention.
He studied the drawing, better in skill and detail than Kelly's chicken-scratch as P'sy called it.
His eyes flicked to the soldiers and then nodded.
…
"I can't believe you agreed to do this." Stein whispered furiously. "You don't think they won't shoot us if we're found out?"
Perreca stopped in his tracks and stared hard at his comrades, friends he had come to call them. "When you joined up last year, was this your vision for serving your country?"
Stein scoffed, speechless.
"Yes or no, Pete?" Perreca pressed.
"I know I didn't." Nathan Jimenez said quietly. "You gonna tell those two? I've heard stories man. My uncle was in Guatemala in 1987 he saw some shit. An American special ops team was decimated, one survivor and it was a creature like that, killed them."
"What's there to tell?" Perreca asked.
Jimenez sighed. "That creature you just let out of the cell…" He pointed to Booker. "Isn't going to be thrilled when he finds out there's one of those metallic aliens here."
Stein gave a short laugh. "What, they got a vendetta against each other? This isn't some sci-fi comic Jimenez."
"Yeah, no mierda, Einstein!" Jimenez snapped. "We need to get that alien his shit before the lady running this place sets that demon loose."
"Who said anything about her setting it loose?"
Jimenez swallowed. "You didn't see them replacing the cell glass last week? The bitch almost broke through… and I overheard a conversation by accident. They were talking about an infestation over in Gunnison, and intelligence relating to a separate alien arriving there. They planned to catch it but the town was nuked and she was pissed, livid, they lost their one chance of capturing this creature."
"Well, they obviously realized he survived the blast somehow." Perreca said.
"Yeah," Jimenez agreed, locking eyes with each of his friends. Booker was last. "And she gets her chance to test him against that thing behind the glass."
…