A/N I apologize for taking so long to update, but real life is a real party pooper when it comes to getting writing done these days. I'm trying very hard to pick these stories back up and hope to update Goodbye and Hello AND this one again by next month at the latest. I'm not gonna promise anything though because we all know what happens when I try to make those, don't we? *pout*
A/N 2 Remember dialogue in these, {-} is thoughts. Once again I'd like to thank my beta Greywizard for all his help. Anything still wrong with this is all my fault, people. *g*
A/N 3 Credit for the chapter title goes to Icewing. Thanks bunches!
Chapter 5 Touch of Death, Touch of Life
Talking to the guy in the pickup truck some more, Max and Michael follow the man's directions, getting off on a dirt road when traffic lets them inch up to it and use that to get to another paved road that will get them to a U.S. highway heading in the direction they need to be going. All of this takes precious time and both chafe at the delay, but once moving again they try to make up for lost time by speeding.
* * *
Both hunters realize the Prey are making straight for the diminutive human. The wounded hunter is amazed as well as perplexed. Looking to do battle, he just shrugs and slams the fallen hunter's spear into one, throwing it off course enough it only knocks the girl down with its tail.
The latest arrival is insulted. He steps into the path of the other Prey and it slams into the Yautja with a loud crash and both go tumbling, narrowly avoiding crushing the tiny female in their wake.
Liz doesn't lose her grip on the spear, but the haft is broken by the fall so that she now has no reach. Undaunted, she scrambles to her feet and dives after the wounded Hunter, fully intending to get up close and personal with what's left of her weapon. Reckless as this is, she doesn't care, thinking she's going to die anyway so she might as well try and make a good accounting of herself.
The wounded hunter is down, hurt even worse and being toyed with, raked by claws now, too. Sparks fly wherever the Prey rakes armor, leaning its face down toward his, jaws opening up in a slimy smile, drool pooling on the hunter's mask.
The girl jumps on the monster while it's intent on its victim, grabbing hold of one of the spine protrusions to help hold herself in place while stabbing what's left of her spear deep into its back between said protrusions.
With a shriek of pain and rage, the creature whips its body and tail around, knocking her off with a slap of that appendage so that she flies through the air and hits the dirt rolling.
The weight lifts off him and the hunter knows the Prey has gone after the human it just swatted like a bug. He gets up and is about to follow when he notices his fellow hunter is in trouble and goes to help, pulling out and extending his own spear as he tries to run.
Coming up against a rock stops Liz's movement and would have severely bruised her back had she not still been wearing the backpack with her journal inside. She looks up, realizes she's in the dark amongst the trees and knows this is not good. Unable to see very well even though there's a hint of grey in the sky signaling the fact that dawn isn't far off, it might as well be hours away for all the good it'll do her.
Reaching out with her senses, she feels the monster has followed her and is close by, slightly overhead and hears it hissing, confirming its position. Taking a chance, she forces herself to use some of her power to light the tree on fire and is rewarded with a shriek of pain as the alien jumps out of it and away before it too, can catch fire.
Something falls to the ground at the base of the burning tree and Liz can see it's the spear that had been imbedded in the thing, the acid blood burning along its length from guard to sharp point. It must have gotten caught in the branches of the tree and yanked out as the monster fled the flames.
She darts forward to grab and pull it closer to herself with one hand, dousing the flames with the other so that it doesn't heat up and burn her. Her ears tell her the creature is coming again, running around and around in a shrinking circle, faster and faster, with her and the burning tree in the middle. Grieving, in pain and still dizzy from her rolling fall, the girl prays, "Oh God, help me."
A whooshing sound causes the Roswell native to jump slightly in fear and is followed by a loud
thunk, then pain burns along her ribs. The monster's tail had lashed out of the dark and buried itself into the tree the girl is standing in front of, narrowly missing impaling her because she'd moved just in time.
Without thinking, Liz grabs at the tail and tries to pull the life force from the creature, but it's quickly being pulled back already, so all she gets is a jammed knuckle for her trouble. Ignoring that pain and the burning sensation in her side, she sidles around the tree gripping the spear, ever mindful of the flames growing closer overhead.
Suddenly the creature is there, breathing in her face, hissing and drooling all over her. With a shriek, it impales her on the tree with its tail through her shoulder and rakes its claws lightly down her front, slicing open soft flesh and grating on bone. Her backpack falls to the ground, the straps severed. Liz screams, it shrieks and in desperation she drops the useless spear, grabs the clawed appendage that is wounding her, getting cuts on her hand in the process, but not caring. Using her newfound ability, she pulls its life force quickly into herself.
Shrieking again, only in surprise this time, it wants to bolt, but has no strength. Snapping feebly at its killer, it whimpers and slumps down to the ground, dead.
Liz wants to wilt with relief, but can't as she's still pinned to the tree with the monster's spear of a tail. She has to use her newfound powers to free herself and nearly blacks out with the effort, remaining upright through sheer will power and hate.
Breathing raggedly due to such severe pain as well as the strange energy rippling through her system, Liz bends and picks up the spear. Ignoring the lightheadedness from blood loss, she stabs the carcass over and over again. One handed at first and then with both, sobs escaping as she vents her anger, not caring about anything else for the moment.
When the creature is totally disfigured and melting its own grave into the earth she stops, coming back to herself and remembering there's one more of the things to deal with. She hurries back toward the road, never realizing her wounds have stopped bleeding and the skin has knitted back together completely, leaving pink scar tissue.
Unnoticed on the ground, the backpack underneath the creature is disintegrating in the acid blood. Liz Parker's journal is no more.
Reaching out with her senses, Liz can feel the life force of one of the hunters begin to ebb even as his roar of pain reverberates through the trees. Two more steps and she's on the road and can see for herself the Alien atop the body, glowing green blood around its mouth and dripping from its jaws as it crows its triumph to the barely seen early morning sky above.
She doesn't see the other hunter yet, knowing he's alive nearby, but concentrating mainly on the monster before her. Liz hadn't realized it before, but this one appears larger than all the others and for the briefest of moments she wonders if it's the one that came out of the huge body builder looking guy.
It lowers its head, sees her standing there and shrieks a challenge before running at the one it has been following all night. It's so intent on reaching her it doesn't see the wounded hunter lunge out of the dark. It does, however, feel the slice that takes its left rear leg off and it screams in pain and anger.
The hunter is spattered with acid blood, forcing him to back away and yank his armor off, throwing it to the pavement. Due to his wounds and severe blood loss, he doesn't move out of the way fast enough to avoid the monster lashing out with its tail and gets knocked out against a tree trunk.
Not standing still during all of this, Liz has snuck around the creature, coming up on and stabbing it from behind, but it kicks her with its one good leg, claws raking her right side and thigh as it sends her flying to land near the dead hunter. Crying out on impact, she could swear she heard bones crunch in her left arm. The sharp pain in her side makes her think she has at least cracked some ribs, too and when it's painful to breathe that confirms it for her. She's lost the spear, it's still imbedded in the monster's back and she can feel blood flowing freely down her side and leg, the loss of which is making her very lightheaded yet again.
{I'm getting really tired of this crap,} she grumbles to herself.
Seeing the hunter's blood so close by, she reaches out for it, then hesitates a moment, "I'm sorry," she whispers before plunging her right hand into the bright green pool around the body, making a grimace of pain at the alien energy coursing through her again, arcing across her teeth and even across her eyes as she shudders. She'd never have done it if she didn't need an energy boost to deal with this situation and she wants to keep that thing as far away as possible, knowing she can't fight it now. {If I ever could!}
When the glow fades, her vision clears enough for her to see the creature is about to stab the unconscious hunter with its tail and she sends a wave of force out, knocking it into the air and down the road at least two dozen yards. She realizes she hadn't made a gesture for that and quips, "Look ma, no hands," then shakily gets to her feet once more.
Hurrying as fast as she can limp to the hunter's side, Liz kneels by him with a gasp of pain at the pulling of her latest wounds and concentrates hard on not draining, but empowering and healing the being in front of her. She prays this will work.
When she thinks she has it, she reaches out and touches the wound in his gut, energy she can feel starts leaving her and entering him, causing his body to jump slightly. She's very glad he doesn't regain consciousness yet as he'd probably kill her without realizing what he was doing.
The wound begins to knit together under her fingers, other places on his body as well and his breathing becomes less shallow, more even. Drained, the girl pulls her hand away, slumps onto her left side and rolls over onto her back, spent. {He's not in perfect shape, but he's a lot better off than he was and I just hope he wakes up before that thing can crawl back up to us.}
Suddenly her foot is grabbed and she's dragged along the pavement, too hurt and exhausted to even try and kick out in defense. The grip is shifted to her thigh and she's dragged further, leaving a damp trail from her blood soaked clothing and now she's looking up at the last monster as it stares malevolently and triumphantly down at her.
"What are you grinning at, bastard? You're gonna die and I'm gonna watch." She tells it, tired beyond belief, but still defiant.
It sinks its claws into her left shoulder, making her scream, then raises its tail and waves it menacingly about. Lowering its face to hers, it starts to open its jaws when it gets knocked over, tackled by the hunter. The two go rolling a short distance away, separating and facing one another, each sizing the other up.
The Alien looks at the Yautja in front of it, then back at the girl who is on her side, trying to sit up once more and hisses its displeasure. Whipping the tail around and down, it impales the girl through the body and lifts her up into the air, dripping blood and screaming.
When it stops waving her about, Liz takes as deep a breath as she can and screams, "Kill it! Kill the… bastard… Now!" She then manages to grab onto the part of the tail in front of her and starts trying to drain the life force from the monster, not caring that she'll fall from quite a height if she succeeds. Apparently it takes conscious effort to switch back to that mode, she just hopes she can do it in time, grimacing as she is jarred again and again by movement of the creature. Finally she has it and her grip tightens between the tail joints of the monster's spine and she feels the telltale tingle start to flow up her arm. She violently yanks it all into herself.
On the ground, the Alien is distracted by what Liz is doing long enough for the hunter to step in and slice its head off, unaware the monster was dead before his blades bit flesh. The body sinks to the ground slowly, but the tail falls fast, crashing to the ground on one side of the road.
Liz blacks out for an all too brief period of time, then comes to, lying on her side with the hunter standing over her, mask off and knife in hand. The shocking sight of that visage helps the girl gather enough of her wits about her to wonder if he plans to kill her after all. Then the blade slices down, cutting through the part of the monster's tail that is protruding from her torso, the jarring motion making her scream in pain once again.
Automatically her hand goes to the stump, intending to pass over it and neutralize the blood so that none of it can burn her, but the hunter catches her hand.
*flash* Liz gets the gets the distinct impression the hunter doesn't want her to die. At the same time, jumbled images flit through her mind of what can only be a space ship, dark corridors, strange technology, an obvious trophy room, what looks like an infirmary of some sort. *end flash*
Her vision clears to see him take out a small canister and spray the cut end of the tail so that she can see it seal, trapping the dangerous liquid inside.
Liz grins at that, "Neat."
The hunter stands to his feet and gestures for her to rise and follow him.
Thinking, {You've <i>got</i> to be kidding! I have to WALK?}
*flash* She gets a vision of herself lying here, dead, for people to find. The vision changes to Max, broken hearted to the point that he howls with grief and lashes out at the people around him, exposing his abilities for all to see and earning himself a one way trip back to the white room and vivisection. *end flash*
Once again, she has to protect Max, this time from himself. In spite of everything, Liz still loves him enough to want to, so she sighs, struggles to her feet and stands before the hunter.
He bends down and breaks off a claw of the corpse, dipping the sharp point into the acid blood and stands, points with his free hand at his own forehead where he'd marked his kill and indicates with the appendage that he will mark her as well.
Understanding dawns, {This is necessary,} so Liz braces herself, nods and allows him to brand her right cheek. Her only reaction is the breath hissing out between her teeth at the bite of the acid on her skin.
The hunter goes to his fallen comrade and bends to pick up the body.
Liz closes her eyes, draws on some of her borrowed energy and does what Ava taught her months ago. Projecting her image to Max.
* * *
Driving along the deserted road, Michael slams on the brakes at the sight in front of the car, it skids to a halt with the apparition standing inside the hood. "Liz?" He's shocked at her appearance, her hair partially gone and what's left all tangled, the torn and bloody clothes, the still smoking mark on her forehead, the
thing sticking out of her middle looking entirely too painful.
Max is surprised his friend can see her too, but neither comment any further, listening to what she has to say instead.
{Pay close attention, Max, I'm hurt really bad and know that if I stay here to wait for you, I'll die before you can get here. I saw that, being 'flash girl' now too.} She smiles wryly, {If I go away on the ship with the big guy here, I'll live to come home again one day and I'm not ready to die yet, Max. Be strong, don't let yourself get caught and put in the white room again. Do you hear me? I love you, but this is goodbye, for now.} She fades away.
"Goodbye? No, Liz, come back! Don't leave me!" Max gets out of the car and yells up at the lightening sky before hitting his knees, wracked by sobs.
Michael rests his forehead against the steering wheel, eyes burning with tears he refuses to shed, missing her already and wishing he could have at least said goodbye.
* * *
At a noise Liz opens her eyes and sees the hunter is gesturing once more, letting her know she's to follow him. Tottering along, she does.
Even burdened with the weight of the dead, the hunter is obviously going slow for her benefit, though not nearly as slowly as the injured girl would like. She is in so much pain her eyesight narrows to focus only on him and misses seeing Jessica's foot move as she walks by. Having feared being the cause of her friend's death, Liz never actually reached out to feel for the absence of the older woman's life force and so doesn't know she's still alive.
* * *
Coming to underneath a monster is the last thing Jessica expects and the accompanying adrenaline rush gives her the strength to shove it off enough to scramble up and away before she has to grab a tree to hold herself upright and off her injured ankle. She gasps with pain as the movement of holding onto the tree reminds her of her injured shoulder and that makes her remember her companion.
Looking around frantically and calling out, "Liz?"
Seeing a trail of red blood amidst the carnage of monster bodies, Jessica grabs up one of the fallen torches and relights it on the pyre of one of the creatures before starting to follow at a halting pace.
She stops and turns back, looking at the bodies once more and turns back to light each one on fire. Seeing it as part of her promise to the girl not to tell anyone about what happened here is to get rid of the bodies and so she does. When she's done, the day is bright enough she can lob the torch at the furthest body and continue on her way.
Unsure of what she'll find, but knowing she has to at least go look for the girl who tried so hard all night to keep her alive, the woman limps on.
* * *
After what seems like an eternity, Liz notices there's more than one hunter in front of her now. She stops, trying to focus. At least a dozen, no, more than that, are standing in a long row.
"Her" hunter passes through the line and relinquishes the body to others there, then turns and gestures for her to follow him again.
{This making me walk here on my own has
got to be some kind of macho thing,} she thinks, but has no other choice, so she doggedly forces herself to go on, limping past the forms towering over her and then she crosses an invisible barrier. A much higher gravity suddenly pulls her down with a vengeance so that her breath leaves with a loud grunt. In spite of the great amount of pain, she can't make any more sound than that, due to no air in her lungs and what she's trying to draw in isn't fit for human beings to breathe, it stinks so bad.
Forcing her head up a little, she sees the Hunter in front of her, just standing there, waiting to see what she will do. {Great, more macho bs!} Unable to get to her feet, she forces herself to crawl until she's next to a wall and then somehow manages to get up. Hugging the wall, she follows him once more and manages to go several yards at a painstakingly slow pace. Then she starts to get dizzy due to the atmosphere change, her eyes roll up in her head and she starts to fall.
The Hunter catches and carries her the rest of the way to the Healers. {This puny human has spirit and is worthy to become Clan.}
* * *
Jessica, her entire body hurting abominably, limps out into the open in time to see Liz disappear among many more of those Hunter guys, going into an almost invisible "something" that is suddenly quite visible. She gasps when the opening closes and the all too obvious spaceship blasts off, disappearing again into the now rising sun. The overwhelmed woman sinks to her knees and passes out once more.
It's more than an hour later that the first fire truck arrives, bypassing the woman on the side of the road, unseen. Someone in the second sees her and radios her position to the paramedics, they are forced to race on toward the huge fire they must fight ahead.
An hour later Jessica is at the nearest hospital where she's diagnosed with a puncture wound to the shoulder, weapon unknown, a severely sprained ankle, numerous cuts and bruises and a concussion that could be the cause of her slight memory loss.
Outside the woman's room, government agents are informed of this last fact and don't react well.
The larger of the pair asks, "Are you telling us that all she remembers is being on the bus last night and seeing what she thought was a meteor hit somewhere nearby? I don't believe it. We'll make her remember. We have to know what happened to all those people!"
The staff psychologist speaks up, "I'm convinced she must have seen what happened to her fellow passengers, but it was so horrific she's blocked it out and it's quite possible she may never recover the memory. Trying to force her to while the trauma is still so new would be a bad idea. Give her some time to heal and then we'll try hypnosis, if she consents."
The agents exchange looks with each other and nod. "We'll play it your way, for now."
* * *
Onboard the Yautja Clan ship…
The Clan Chieftain is listening to his grandson's appeal for the small human to have Beta status. Other Betas resent this and argue for her to be killed.
The Chieftain looks toward the back of the Audience Chamber and demands, "Healer speak!"
A Yautja very differently dressed from the others speaks up now, "It lives." This is said quickly before turning to leave, not daring to stay in the presence of her leader any longer.
Contemplating this and having listened to both sides of the issue before him, the Clan leader comes to a decision. "The soft meat has proven itself by killing Ultimate Prey, we will not put it to death. It will have Delta status if it survives the genome sequencing."
End chapter 5