Alien Instinct

by Tracy Lauren

I fire at the final giant, but it only blows off a portion of a leg. I aim and fire again and the phase whinnies down to nothing. The final shot connects exactly where I wanted it to go, but without enough power to land a kill. The giant recoils at the sensation and rears its hind half. Suddenly, spines come flying at us. I look around and realize that the still oncoming swarm fires the hairy spines at us as well. It is some type of defense mechanism.

  Kate now realizes the state of my weapon. She bravely steps in front of me, firing her charger at anything that dares near us. I laugh and pull her back by the waist.

  “Do not forget, my sweet Kate. The blaster is not my only weapon.” Pulling out my blade, I dive into the fray. Kate curses angrily in my wake. I trust my brave and fierce female to cover me without instruction. I ignore the smaller spines that fly near me as I move in--my thick skin will not allow them to penetrate anyway. I count only a half dozen or so remaining spiders and I seek them out. Gripping each one I pass with my claws, I drive my knife into their heads. They fall lifeless at my feet. I hear the electric sound of Kate’s charger and its shots fly past me.

  I gradually make my way towards the last giant. The spider charges me, its gait uneven from its missing leg, it wobbles toward me at a great speed. I kill one more large spider and Kate fills the last with multiple shots from her charger. There are a few small strays left, but Kate will make quick work of them. Now, it is just me and the final beast.

  It snaps at me and raises a leg, swinging it down on me like a spear. I dodge it. Kate runs to my side, her charger still raised and I see the spider’s eyes cloud and shift to my mate. It smells her. It immediately abandons its path towards me, perceptibly honing in on Kate.

  “Run,” I tell her. She huffs and hesitates. “Get back, now!” I roar and fling my wings open. The pack rips from my back and I hear Kate stumble and hit the ground. She scrambles and I hear her feet begin to beat against the ground. I roar my battle cry and let my wings pump just enough to aid me in a leap towards the creature.

  The beast prickles at my challenge and fires more hairy spines. These are larger and have more power behind them than those of the younger spiders. I feel them graze my arm and side, but my charge is not interrupted. I land on the monstrosity’s back and drive my blade into one of its eyes. It hisses and screams, bucking me off. I land on the ground in front of it, the wind is knocked from my lungs. I hear Kate’s screams, but cannot make out her words. Before I can recover, the spider’s pincers come down on my shoulder. I imagine it will hurt later, but for now I am numb with adrenaline.

  Suddenly, in my peripheral vision, I see Kate’s form next to the spider. She takes her charger and presses it down into the wound my blaster gave the beast and fires. The thing releases me and it writhes wildly on the ground--jointed legs frantically working to ease the pain of electrocution. I take this opportunity to drive my knife through the underside of the beast’s head. It’s screaming and hissing comes to an abrupt end.

  “Rennek!” Kate screams. I can feel her grabbing at me and pulling me away from the spider. My feet falter and my legs feel weak, but I am beyond pleased. The threat has been eliminated.

  “Rennek, come on. You’re hurt. It’s time to go.” She tugs at me and I hear a thread of hysteria under her effortfully calm tone.

  I stand and look at my Kate, brushing her hair back from her sweat and dirt smeared face. I beam at her, “All is well. I am fine.” Truly, I feel fine.

  “Rennek, you’re bleeding. We have to get back now,” she says firmly. I laugh and look down. That’s when I see the blood. I move to take a step forward and stumble again. Kate instinctively ducks under my arm to steady me.

  I look down at her and see the worry in her eyes. They are wide, like saucers and I want to tell her something to ease her fears, but it is suddenly a struggle to form words. “We should hurry…” I manage, “if we want to make it back by sunset,” I tell her before the world around me goes black.

  Chapter 48

  Kate

  I read a book once where a female character had to carry her beefy boyfriend after he got injured. She knew about hunting and stuff and made a travois to carry him. Thank god I read that freaking book. I need to get Rennek out of here in a now kind of way and it isn’t like I can throw him over my damned shoulder. He’s out cold, bleeding heavily from a wound by his collar bone and there are spider spines lodged in his arm and side.

  “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck…” I mutter, assessing his large and unconscious body. I look around worriedly, making sure no predator--spider or otherwise sneaks up on us. I decide my first course of action is to pull the spines out. They are covered in course hairs that I worry could be poisonous. I pop my shirt off without regard and wrap it around my hand before I grabs the first spine and rip it out. The hairs catch on Rennek’s flesh and I wince. I pull one from his arm, two from his side, and I find a smaller final one lodged in his thigh.

  I shake out the shirt and turn it inside out and ball it up on Rennek’s collar, applying pressure while I scan the area. I need two long pieces of wood and something to stretch across it to set Rennek on. Luckily wood is something the forest floor has in abundance. I run around, kicking up piles of leaves and eventually unearth two old and weathered branches that are the right size for me to hold. Now… what can I set Rennek on? I look all around. There are huge megaflora leaves everywhere, I could use a few of those, but I don’t really have a way to attach them to my travois poles.

  “Think Kate, think, think.” I eye Rennek’s loincloth. “Fuck it,” I say and I work to free my man from his only piece of clothing. I spread the thing out as much as I can and tie it to both travois poles. Now, the hard part. Or the first hard part in a long line of hard parts…

  “Okay, babe. I’m sorry if this hurts,” I tell his unconscious body before I start tugging him, trying to get him atop the cloth. I tug and tug and roll him, I even sit on my butt and push him with my legs. Finally, he’s on top of the small piece of cloth, his arms hanging over the poles. I get up to begin our journey back, but frown at my device. His wings are going to get all scraped up if I try to pull him like this. I huff and decide to try and flip him. After much more work, he is naked and on his stomach atop my travois. I hitch the poles up under my arms and begin to pull.

  “Ughhhh, oh my god, this is still so hard,” I grunt.

  I tug and pull and drag him along and my grunts turn into sobs as we inch forward. He’s okay, everything is going to be okay. I can do this. I just need to get him back to the safety of our room. I ignore the fact that he hasn’t woken or even stirred. I also try to ignore the fact that the marsh around us frightens me.

  When the spiders came out the other animals fled, but now, as the silence drags on I can hear things returning. Fear builds itself up inside me. I look back at Rennek, his grey skin tone seems to be lighter than normal. It’s pale and clammy. He’s covered in blood and dirt and sweat. I get about five feet and see he is sliding off the travois. I have to stop and reposition him. I get back up to the front of my poles and this time try for a running start. This extra burst helps me pull him along a little more quickly than my previous try, but he also slides down more quickly this time too. I heave at the poles, only to fall forward onto my hands and knees in the dirt and leaves.

  This isn’t working. I need something else. A different plan. I need help. The comm! I jump up and scan the area. Floating in the water, I see the torn pack.

  “Oh shit,” I breathe out and run to the water’s edge. Using a short branch, I pull it towards me, rather than wading in and drenching my shoes. I’m able to get it to come close enough that I can grab it. Scooting away from the water, I dump the pack out. Scanner, comm, first aid kit. Yup, I definitely need all this stuff. I start pressing buttons on the comm, but the device does not respond.

  “Hello, can anyone hear me? If you can, please, you have to come help! Rennek’s been hurt! Please, is anyone there? Can anybody hear me?” I scream into the thing, just in case ma
ybe, just maybe, someone on the other end can hear me, even if I can’t hear them.

  Okay, new plan. I look at the travois. The problem is the loincloth. It’s too small, he keeps sliding off it. I need something big. Like a blanket. My heart pounds, rejecting the idea as quickly as I have it. I need to go back to our room and grab a blanket. I’m going to have to leave him here unguarded.

  Tears spill from my eyes, but I have no time to acknowledge them. I run and rip some big leaves from a low hanging branch, this is probably stupid--but it’s the best I can do. I cover Rennek with the leaves, so he is hidden and say a prayer that nothing attacks him while I am gone. Just for good measure, I take my charger and find a rock covered slope near the water. I aim high and fire at it. There is a loud cracking noise and rocks tumble noisily into the water. I hear birds flapping their wings, startled by the sudden sound. I hope I scared any lurkers away…

  I don’t have time to waste standing around worrying, so before the rocks even finish crashing into the water I break into a sprint. I can’t leave him for long. So, over hills and rocks and branches, I run. I run until it feels like my lungs are on fire and I think I might throw up. My thighs burn and my body tries to slow down, but I push it harder. It’s like being in one of those dreams where you’re being chased--but when you try to run it feels like you’re wading through molasses.

  Finally, I get to the ruins, past the gate, go up the stairs and into our room. I don’t pause or slow down, I just grab the blanket, turn around and keep running. On the way back to him I trip and fly face first onto the ground. I push myself up, my leg protests, but I refuse to slow down. Poor Rennek is alone, lying under some fucking leaves, surrounded by piles of spider corpses. I suck air into my burning lungs. I hope we got them all. I hope he isn’t being dragged into the spider’s den right now.

  Then an embarrassing thought hits me--I hope he doesn’t wake up while I’m away. I feel awful for even thinking that, but I also feel so ashamed that I had to leave him. He would never leave me. Of course, he could carry me like a rag doll… but still, I can’t stand the thought of him being alone without me by his side. Logically, I get that I had no choice--or at least none I could think of in that moment. Still, I can’t stop my mind from imagining him waking up alone in the swampy marsh. I feel like I’ve failed him. I run harder.

  When I see him still lying where I left him I feel a mixture of relief and panic. He’s been unconscious for a long time. I make quick work of tying the material of the blanket to the travois. I use Rennek’s knife to tear the edges of the fabric so I can secure it in multiple places. Finally, I get him back atop the fabric and start to pull. He is still heavy as fuck and the travois is awkward and difficult to hold onto, but he isn’t sliding off now and so I pull. And pull. And pull. Grunting, sobbing and yelling my frustration into the forest as we go.

  “Don’t worry, Rennek. I’ve got you. You can count on me,” I tell him… or maybe I tell me.

  I can’t imagine what a mess I look right now, topless and sweating, fumbling over every dip and root the ground has to offer--and it has plenty to offer. Still, I’d be overjoyed if I stumbled upon Da’vi and Allison right now. But no one comes and the day wears thin, the sky reddens with the sunset and still we aren’t back to the ruins yet.

  After what seems like an eternity, I see the high stone walls peeking through the trees ahead of me. The sight of it gives me a last burst of strength and I trudge onward. It’s dark when we make it inside the courtyard and I still refuse let myself slow. When I look up and see the staircase another sob escapes me. It feels like a punch to my chest. Or maybe my lungs are trying to tell me they are giving up.

  “Just a little further, we’re almost back babe,” I tell Rennek, even though he has been still and silent since collapsing back at the marsh. I look back at him, but it’s so dark and he’s so still. A dark thought crosses my mind. I wonder if he’s still breathing. I want to drop the poles and go check, but I violently push that possibility out of my mind. Of course he is, he’s fine. He is going to be fine.

  The stairs prove to be an issue and I have to abandon my travois and make the saddest pulley system in the history of simple machines. I use the now tattered and shredded blanket, tying it around his body and wrapping the other end around one of the window columns, then use my body weight to drag his giant ass up the stairs. I pull him on the blanket the rest of the way down the corridor and to our room.

  Once inside the door I want to collapse on the ground and cry myself to sleep, but that isn’t an option. It’s dark in our room, the coals have died out. I feel around the floor until I find the flint and grab some tinder and a log Rennek had prepared and left by our fireplace. My hands shake, but I get the fire started quickly enough. When light fills the room, it feels like a blessing. The Elysian chicken is still hanging over the fire. It’s withered, dry and burnt on one side. I move it aside so the high fire I’ve built doesn’t burn it further.

  “I’ve got you Rennek, I’m here. You just stay with me and I’ll stay with you, okay?” I tell him, but he just lays silent, scraped up, and filthy on the floor.

  There’s a lot to do. First thing’s first. I want to get him into the bed. It doesn’t look very comfy though and once I get him up and in I don’t imagine he’ll be moving for some time, so I want to get him as comfortable as possible. I grab our flashlight and run outside. I am acutely aware of the feel of my charger bouncing in my pocket as I run. I go just beyond the gates and start grabbing armfuls of big smooth leaves. I can carry about ten at a time and I make two trips, running the entire time.

  Back in the room I spread them out on the bed, making sure to scan for creepy crawlies as I do. I’m confident these leaves are safe because they come from the same type of tree Rennek used to make the cord for our bed. Wouldn’t it be icing on the cake if they gave us the alien equivalent to poison oak? Luckily, I’m sure Rennek already performed a scan on them.

  Once the bed looks like it has a little padding I turn to Rennek. The rest of the night passes in a daze. I wash his wounds and use a clean shirt to rewrap is shoulder. Even in the firelight I can see how filthy my poor man is. I end up having to scrub all of him down before I work to get him up and into the bed. Then, I dig through the first aid kit and eye all the meds. I have no clue what any of them are and again curse my alien illiteracy. If only I could read a fucking label!

  “Maybe Tennir can make me a chip or give me an upgrade so I can learn to read and write in your language?” I tell my silent Rennek.

  At the very least we have some ointments and creams. I smell them both before I choose a clear, sticky one to put on his arm, leg and side. I think I’ll avoid putting anything on the big owie for now. I frown at the fresh shirt on his shoulder--already blood shines through it. I’m worry he needs stitches and not only do I not have the equipment for that, I don’t know the first thing about how to properly stitch anybody. Too bad I never conveniently watched a YouTube video on the subject, that sure would come in handy right now.

  Once Rennek is cleaned and cared for I get a water pouch and try to prop his head up and help him to drink. His head and horns are so big and heavy though and it’s hard to get a good angle, most of the water I try to get in his mouth spills out on his chest and he chokes on the rest. Frustrated with how helpless I feel I wipe him down and cover him with the last blanket.

  I look around the room. I guess it’s time to take care of me now. The upper half of my body is filthy and covered in scrapes and bruises. I pull my pants off and wince as they pass my knee. It’s black and blue from falling on it. I swallow a knot in my throat, determined to get done with the night’s tasks. I scrub myself down quickly, not taking half the care I took with Rennek’s sponge bath. I just want this all to be over and to be lying in bed next to him. I’m dismayed to remember I’m on my period. I have to wash my “pad” and grab a new one made from my torn shirt. I only have one shirt left now. Tomorrow I’ll do laundry.

  When my tasks a
re all said and done I feel a bone deep kind of tired. I sit between the bed and the fire and pick at the Elysian chicken. I’m not hungry… or maybe I’m beyond hungry, but I don’t want to waste the food. It won't be good tomorrow. I stare at Rennek as I eat.

  “Are you hungry, babe?” I ask. My voice cracks and the silence in the room is heavy. I crawl up onto the bed with a piece of meat in my hand. Crawling close to Rennek, I try to encourage him to wake up.

  “Rennek? You must be hungry, wake up and take a couple bites for me babe. It’ll help you heal.” I touch his cheek, but he is still except for the rise and fall of his chest.

  Once I’ve eaten all I can I take all the leftover meat and the flashlight and head out past the gate. I really, really don’t want to go out into the night on my own, but I also don’t want the smell of meat in our room as we sleep. I don’t know what it could attract. I go as far as my wavering bravery will allow me and bury the stuff at the base of a tree. I’ll have to wash up again when I get inside.

  Finally, at the end of a day that has surely shaved years off my life, I crawl into bed with Rennek. I scoot close to his body and wrap my arm around his waist--careful of his injuries. Then I let myself cry until sleep carries me away from this dream turned nightmare.