Alien Instinct

by Tracy Lauren

  Rennek returns to my side. Wrapping his arm around me, he hugs me against his body. I know he can sense how much this distance Allison is creating bothers me. It’s pointless, I’ve spent so much of my life in self-imposed isolation. Now that all this has happened to us--the abduction and everything since. Life has really been put into a different perspective for me. Why waste time being unhappy, or alone, or struggling when you don’t have to?

  Sure, Allison doesn’t have a big sexy gargoyle to take care of her--but she has other humans… she has me. I can’t hunt for her or anything, but I can hear her out. I can listen to what she is going through and be there for her. She doesn’t have to be alone in this.

  “It’s time,” Rennek says, giving me one final squeeze before standing and extinguishing the flames. The sun has already sunk and there is only a bit of light left, peeking at us from the horizon. We rinse our hands and faces with some water from one of the pouches Rennek carries and we all take a bathroom break before we slip back below the canopy and onto the branches. The light is even more faint here, so I rely on Rennek to hold my hand and show me the best footholds and we move from tree to tree.

  Soon we approach the wide branches that Rennek and I… enjoyed… earlier in the afternoon. I notice it seems a little warmer under the trees compared to the mountaintop, so Rennek spreads a blanket on the branch and we lay on top of it. I watch Da’vi yank a few vines until they hang with greater slack from a branch above. He twists them around one another a few times in a braid like motion and climbs inside. He has made a little makeshift hammock. Allison takes a blanket from her pack, wraps it around her shoulders and leans against the massive trunk of the tree.

  “First watch,” Da’vi calls.

  “Wake me when you require rest, my friend,” Rennek tells him. Da’vi grunts his acknowledgement.

  Slowly the last warm light from the sun fades and we are surrounded in darkness. Rennek holds me close to him and the warmth of his body chases away any chill that might threaten to make my slumber anything less than comfortable. I snuggle into him and can’t help but smile against his muscled chest. I try to look up towards the sky. I want to see the stars on this new world, but the trees block much of my view and before I can find a tiny prick of light peeking through the leaves, sleep whisks me away.

  Chapter 37

  Rennek

  When I next open my eyes I can see that the moons have risen. The forest around us is filled with the milky light of Elysia’s moon system. Kate stirs beside me. I caress her back in the hope that I will soothe my sweet mate back to sleep. I look up towards Da’vi and see he is no longer in his perch.

  “No sudden movements,” he whispers to me.

  My eyes search in the direction of his voice and I see him on the branch nearby, crouching low. His blade glints in the moonlight. My hand finds my blade as well. I sense Kate stiffen next to me. His words have roused her to awareness.

  I carefully roll to my stomach so that I may more easily follow his gaze. Then I see it. There, climbing atop Allison are four arthropod creatures, roughly the size of marsh rakes. They look agitated. They hold long, segmented tails up in the air above their bodies. I can see stingers at the tips. I watch them closely. They congregate near her booted feet. Da’vi makes a few slow and stealthy steps forward and the creatures seem unaware. Kate tilts her head so she can see what is happening. I see her hand fly over her mouth when she sees what is atop her friend.

  Da’vi and I both inch forward together. This time however, Allison stirs and one of the creatures climbs higher up her legs and onto her lap. We freeze as Allison’s eyes open slowly and then go very wide. She looks to Da’vi and he motions for her to wait. Da’vi clicks, once, twice, he pauses and on the third click we both pounce. He knocks two of the creatures off and I send the other two flying off the tree limb.

  “Holy shit!” Allison exclaims as she moves to get up, a look of relief rushing over her face for just the quickest moment--before pain sinks into her features.

  “Agh!” She screams out. She flings the blanket away and there beneath the covers is one more of the arthropods, stinger stuck deep into Allison’s leg. Da’vi does not hesitate. Before I even know what it is happening he has skewered the thing with his blade. Its legs are still writhing when he tears its tail from her calf.

  “Ow, ow, ow! Careful, don’t twist it!” Allison begs.

  “Sit!” Da’vi commands and he helps her lower herself to a position where we can examine the wound. I move to use my blade to cut her pants, but he grabs it from me.

  “I will do it,” he grits out.

  Instead I hurry to my pack to retrieve a lantern and the scanner. When I return Da’vi has cut her pants up to her knee. I can see the wound is on her calf. It is red and swelling. I hold the light close, some of the stinger is still lodged in her leg. Da’vi looks angrily at Allison.

  “This will hurt,” he tells her, just before jamming his knife against the wound at an angle--this pushes the stinger out along with a spurt of blood and venom.

  I turn my attention to the lifeless arthropod and begin running scans on the creature to determine how poisonous it might be and to see if we have any meds to counter the effects. Kate has joined us and sits beside Allison. I am surprised to see Allison grab for my Kate’s hand. She must truly be in pain.

  As the results are processing I survey the scene. Da’vi looks down at Allison and Kate loathsomely before stalking over to inspect the dead creature. Its back is hard, it’s color a deep greenish blue, with three sets of legs and a long, flat tail the tapers toward where the stinger once was. He flips it over to reveal it’s under belly. Underneath there are thousands of small legs that are almost hair-like, leading up toward a mouth and a pair of ventral eyes.

  It is undoubtedly ugly, but does not look like a creature that poses much of a threat. Appearances can often be deceiving, I suppose. Da’vi seems as unimpressed by the creature as I am. He turns his attention instead to the place that Allison had made her bed for the night. I hear him huffing and cursing under his breath.

  “There is a nest here, human! You made your bed on a nest!” he bellows. Allison refuses to meet his gaze but Kate looks at him, incredulous.

  “You say you wish to learn skills to survive, but you make such a foolish mistake as to sleep on another creature’s nest! I cannot teach you! Tomorrow you will be as this one--” He waves his hand at my Kate. “I will carry the supplies and possibly you as well. I will feed you and keep you warm by the fire each night. You will not concern yourself with learning any longer.”

  “What?!” Allison says as if a blow has just been landed to her core.

  “How dare you!” My Kate stands and her tone is enough to level any warrior.

  “You are goddesses,” Da’vi stresses. “I should have never attempted to teach this female,” Da’vi tells her.

  “How about instead of reprimanding the student for not knowing what you didn’t teach her, you reassess your teaching skills. All I’ve heard you do so far is point out the things you think she isn’t ready to learn. And that’s only half the time, the other half you completely ignore her and don’t even help with the things you have agreed to teach her.”

  “You should be working with her, pointing out as much as possible rather than faulting her for not already knowing how to survive in a damned rainforest. If she already knew these things she wouldn’t need your ass to teach her in the first place!” Kate bellows accusingly.

  Though the situation is a heavy one I cannot help but smile at how fierce my mate is. This is why she is the queen of her people. Hard headed Da’vi however, only flicks his scales in response.

  “I will not be responsible for this foolish endeavor any longer. She is going to get herself killed if I allow it to continue,” Da’vi says firmly.

  “Allow it to continue? Who do you think you are? Maybe Allison doesn’t need you to be her teacher anymore. You aren’t the only one with survival skills around here. Rennek co
uld teach her, Rennek could teach us both,” Kate tells him.

  “Absolutely not,” Da’vi commands.

  “Hello! You don’t own her! If Allison wants to learn it doesn’t have to be from you, and I’m starting to think it shouldn’t be from you!” Kate yells and she jams her finger into Da’vi’s chest as she speaks.

  “She indentured herself to me!” Da’vi begins to argue.

  “Indentured herself to you? What are you saying, she’s like your slave now?” Kate interrupts, scoffing at him.

  “I will not let another male…” Da’vi bellows into the face of my mate, but I have had enough of this. I tackle Da’vi with all my might, catching him off guard and sending both of us careening over the side of the tree limb into the darkness below.

  “Rennek!” I hear Kate’s scream from above.

  Da’vi and I come crashing down to a branch a few levels below the females. I work quickly to pin him against the tree. He fights hard against me, but is unable to free himself.

  “I see what is going on here, my brother,” I tell him in a hushed voice, so the females do not overhear.

  “You will not let her continue this! I won’t allow it! She will fail…” He declares ferociously, still trying to fight against me. Finally, his body slacks and he hangs his head.

  “If she tries and she fails Rennek, if she is hurt or killed… it would end me. Even now she sits up there with poison in her system…”

  “The scanner results finalized while you argued with my mate. It is a mild venom, she will have swelling and pain around the wound for a rotation, maybe two, but she will not even need any meds to counter the effects of the venom. She is fine Da’vi,” I tell him knowingly. “The larger wound is to her pride.”

  “Her pride,” he laughs ruefully. “She may be fine now, but she cannot continue like this--I will lose my mind Rennek! She is so stubborn! She will let me do nothing for her.”

  I release my grip on my friend and we sit side by side on the branch, our feet dangling into the abyss below.

  “I know exactly how you feel,” I assure him.

  “You do not, Rennek. You could not possibly know how I feel. Your mate…” he sighs. “Your mate is your mate. She is yours and you are hers. The way she looks at you… Allison will never look upon me with such affection. That female is incapable of it,” he says disheartened.

  “You are too quick to give up, my brother. When I first laid eyes upon my Kate I knew in my core she was my mate, that there would never be another for me. Never in my wildest dreams did I dare think she would return my affections. I believed I was doomed to follow her as nothing more than a friend and guardian for all the days of my life. But I would have gladly done just that. Be grateful for what you have and maybe from that, something more will grow.”

  “Do you truly see Allison returning anyone’s affections?” He says with disbelief and anger lacing his words.

  “Right now, all I see is two stubborn fools. Which of you will be the one to bend first?” I ask. “Kate is correct. You have been a poor teacher, especially if you wish for your student to one day be your mate.”

  He breathes a long sigh at my words. “She will never be one to bend, will she?”

  “And what of you?”

  “I do not know that I can.”

  “Then that is something you must consider. Oh, and Da’vi?” He looks me in the eye and I hit him square on the jaw so hard he nearly topples over the edge of the branch. “Do not ever raise your voice at my mate again or I will rip your throat from your body.”

  “I apologize, my friend. I have not been myself,” he says rubbing his jaw.

  “Yes, you have been even more bad tempered than usual,” I agree. “Take the rest of the evening. Think on where you wish to find yourself and what path you must take to arrive there. I will stand guard over the females,” I tell him.

  He nods solemnly and I climb back up to my mate, leaving him to his thoughts.

  Chapter 38

  Kate

  “Shhh! Quiet, I think I hear them,” I tell Allison and we both still, listening for sounds from the men.

  “He’s right. I will fail. I’m a failure,” Allison says with resignation.

  “Bullshit,” I tell her, holding Rennek’s lamp over the side, trying to get a glimpse of what’s going on below. The moon does a decent job of lighting the forest, but visibility doesn’t go very far.

  “I’m sorry, I should have just let the guys do everything. I was so caught up in trying to find a place for myself, I put myself in danger and that puts the whole group at risk. I was being selfish.”

  “That’s dumb. Don’t say that,” I tell her.

  “You must have been a damn inspirational speaker back on Earth,” she says with anger filling her words rather than her usual dismissiveness.

  “That’s funny, I was thinking the same thing about you,” I turn the light at her and smile, but I’m really checking for signs she’s dying from that nasty scorpion centipede thing that stung her. “How do are you feeling?”

  “My leg hurts. It burns and itches and the skin is so tight it feels like it is going to split open, but other than that, not too bad. No dizziness, no fever. I’m not hallucinating or anything else,” she tells me, but I don’t hear a lot of confidence behind her words.

  “You’re scared,” I say. It isn’t a question.

  “Wouldn’t you be?” She asks.

  I sit down next to her. “Yeah. I would be if it were me and I’m scared for you now.” I see tears stream down her face. This is a rare moment for sure: Allison exposing her vulnerability. I watch her and try to think about what she needs in this moment and how I might be able to be there for her.

  She really is beautiful, even dirty in the forest. She has that long brown mermaid hair and the kind of looks that make you hate a girl for no good reason. The kind of looks that make you assume life just fits neatly in place for this person and they’ve never had to struggle before, or work hard a day in their life.

  “Talk to me, Allison. Please? I want to be there for you, but I just really don’t know how to do that without you letting me in.” She wipes her eyes and looks away shaking her head.

  “This is just who I am. Or who I was at least. I work hard, harder than anyone else, and I succeed. I climb ladders and I just keep going. There isn’t time left over for… for other things. Trivial things. This is just who I am,” she repeats.

  At first, I don’t really get it, and then suddenly I do, because it actually sounds kind of familiar. “I thought if I could just keep going… shut out all the white noise, work hard… it’d be the same as Earth. I’d kick ass and climb that ladder. I’d have the sense of security that comes with success, but I don’t know if I can succeed here. This isn’t a marketing presentation for a large account, this is life or death survival shit and I’m afraid Da’vi is right: I will fail.”

  “Am I white noise in this scenario then, me and the other girls,” I smile--trying to show Allison I take no offense. I just want to understand.

  “No offense,” she says confirming my assumption.

  “Tell me then, why is it so hard for you to admit you’re like the rest of us?” I don’t say the words though; the words Reagan and I used the first time we had this discussion with everyone. Allison saves me the trouble.

  “Why is it so hard to admit that no one will miss me? That no one will be looking for me or even notice I’m gone? That If I miss a day at work there are ten people in line waiting to snake my job and bad mouth me the first chance they get.” She does something between a rueful laugh and a sob, “What bugs me the most is that they’ll all just assume I couldn’t handle the pressure. That’s the part that drives me crazy.”

  “Why didn’t you just tell us that?”

  “What I don’t get is how you guys can even say it out loud. Aren’t you embarrassed, isn’t it humiliating to know that no matter what you were doing in life, no matter how hard you were working or how much success you g
arnered, that no one really gave a shit about you? To know you were utterly replaceable at every level?”

  “Hmm, well when you say it that way…” We both laugh lamely. “I don’t know what to tell you. Yes, it’s painful to know that no one will notice I’m gone. But I wouldn’t go so far as to say no one gave a shit about me. The people in my life… my family in particular. Well, they just cared for me in their own way. It wasn’t the best way and there were many times in my life I wished for more, but it was all they were capable of, you know.”

  “Well fuck that and fuck them,” she says. “I don’t do anything in my life half ass and I certainly wouldn’t half ass my friendships or my family.”

  “As far as I can tell, you ‘no ass’ friendships,” I remind her of the distance she continues to place between herself and the rest of the humans.