Page 11 of Alien's Eternal Mate

“Reload!”

Riel’s bellowed order was unnecessary, as most of the Vakutan already had new magazines jammed into their weapons. The nearest one to the creature opened fire.

The thing leaped upon him, remaining three arms tearing, clawing, and catching. I watched as a seven foot alien soldier who could squish me with one hand was torn to pieces by the much-smaller cyborg monstrosity.

“Fall back!”

I ran, unsure of where the lift lay, but knowing that if I remained I would die. Clawed limbs thrust out of the solid stone pods, blocking my path. I ducked beneath them, leaped over them, did whatever I could to avoid being snagged.

Once I came around a bend in the maze to find one of the newborn creatures struggling to stand. I flattened my back to the wall and inched my way around it.

The monster’s scarlet, glowing eye snapped my way. One of its clawed limbs tore through the air, ripping my sleeve and scoring a bloody line across my ribcage.

I cried out, clapping my hand to my burning side. I ran, the sounds of battle all around me. Every so often, I heard a soldier scream.

My hand grew wet with blood. I strove to hold the flap of skin closed as I ran. Blood continued to flow all the same. I feared leaving a trail that the cyborg monsters could follow.

Staggering around the edge of another tower filled with grasping, clutching fruit, I caught a glimpse of the mining lift. Hope surged in my heart.

A black blur came in hard on my side. A scream tore its way out of my wide open mouth as one of the cyborgs tackled me. We hit the floor hard and rolled end over end. Sharp metal cut my cheek to the bone. Machine oil poured into my many wounds, burning like fire. I screamed and struggled, kicking at the monstrosity until at last I got myself from underneath.

Its red eye had gone dark. Bullet holes riddled its corpse. The thing was dead. It had probably been dead before it struck me, its momentum carrying it along until it crossed my path.

I ran for the mining lift, but my left knee twinged and buckled. I sprawled on the floor, slipping and sliding in my own blood. The sounds of gunfire came less and less often, but the growling and snapping maws of the creatures had become a vast chorus.

I struggled to my feet, but my left leg would hardly bear any weight at all. I staggered along, dragging one leg behind me, using it like a crutch instead of a limb.

I risked a glance behind me. One of the Vakutan came into view, stumbling out of the maze. Three cyborgs clung to him, tearing away at his scaled flesh as he cried out in anguish.

“Help me!” he cried. Even with half his face missing, I could tell it was Riel.

“Like Hell I will,” I muttered, turning my back on him. I just had to hope he would last a little bit longer, and keep the monsters distracted while I limped my way to the lift.

Come on, Riel. You’re a tough guy. Strong. Vakutan. You’ve got this.

I heard renewed blasts of gunfire from behind me. Maybe Riel got his second wind, or was able to lay hands on another weapon. All I knew was the mining lift drew ever nearer. I stretched my hand out when I was still ten feet away, desperate to feel its metal carapace and know I would be safe.

My hand closed on the chassis at last. Half sobbing with relief, I threw myself on board and grasped at the control panel.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

I turned at the sound of the gurgling, wet voice. My jaw fell open. Riel shouldn’t have been able to stand, let alone talk. One of his arms was simply gone at the shoulder, a geyser of frothy blood spilling out onto the floor. White bone made up more of his form than flesh, half his face nothing but a grinning skull.

My hand covered my mouth when I realized I could see through him. His abdomen had a hole in it I could have put my arm through without touching the sides.

“If I’m going to die,” he sputtered, blood flecking his lips “I’m going to make sure you go with me.”

I threw myself onto the deck plating of the lift as he fired his gun. The recoil proved too much for his ravaged body, pulling him in a lazy circle before he flopped onto the ground. He missed me entirely, but the lift wasn’t so lucky.

His wild shots damaged the antigravity matrix, leaving it a sparking, smoking mess. The lift tilted badly to the side, throwing me into a tumble until I slammed into the safety railing.

“No, no, no!”

I grasped the railing, legs dangling over the side as the lift dropped deeper into the shaft. The sounds of the cyborgs faded, but I knew they were still up there, still waiting to devour me to power their ancient servos.

The lift’s safety protocols kept it from plummeting down the shaft. But it was a one-way trip, down only, the power requirements for upward mobility simply too great.

I rolled out of the lift about five feet before the bottom, landing hard on my side. The damaged lift came down all wrong, buckling and folding like an accordion. It wavered crazily for a moment, and then fell toward me.

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