“Love getting ready to greet some territorial aliens without knowing any bloody verbs or adjectives or the way to say ‘friendly humans, please don’t eat us,’” I muttered darkly, and Theresa gave me a comforting pat on the knee. At least, she was trying to be comforting. But I could see that my words had worried her. I wasn’t the only one who thought my lack of acquired alien language skill could potentially fuck us over big time.
The colonel gave a few more instructions, reminding us of things we already knew – no aggressive, sudden movements, only get as close as necessary to communicate – before he took his seat in one of the main console chairs facing the windshield.
“Here we go. Commence descending protocols.”
Descending to the planet’s surface was indeed nothing like the movies. It was about as rocky as an airplane coming down. We got a little jostled, but before we knew it we had landed, clouds of coppery dust rising from the sand was we did so.
The colonel stood, grinning, then shrugged into his own solar protection jacket, turning to face us with triumphantly open arms.
“Everyone, welcome to -”
An ear-splitting crash and an inhuman shriek split the air. Glass exploded in towards us, and something sharp and bloody and black burst through the front of Colonel Jackson’s chest, tearing his uniform and leaving him slumped to the ground when whatever it was withdrew.
Screams rang out around us, as did more of the catastrophic shrieking, like metal grating against metal.
I could barely process what was going on. Colonel Jackson, along with all the pilots and soldiers who had been at the front of the bridge, were on the ground, dead and bleeding. My mouth dropped open in horror as I finally clued into why.
Alien creatures that I couldn’t identify were pouring into the shattered windshield opening. There were like nothing I’d ever seen on earth – a metre tall, at least, resembling some kind of coconut crab/spider/scorpion mashup. Their powerful, armoured black legs scrabbled into the room, stabbing soldiers with their spiked tails as they did so.
I was frozen to the spot, as was Theresa, but Melanie sprang up. Kat quickly followed, and they yanked at our elbows.
“Get the fuck up,” Kat screamed over the sounds, and I shook myself, jumping onto shaky legs.
“We gotta go,” Melanie said. Her voice was strangely smooth and unperturbed.
The other girls were all also jumping to their feet now. The remaining soldiers were firing their guns towards the horrific creatures, but that seemed to do nothing at all. I mean, they were strong enough to crash through a goddamn spaceship’s wall. Don’t see what a bullet will do.
Kat seemed to have the same thought.
“We’re on another planet, on a spaceship out of the goddamn future, and all you guys have are shitty guns?” She screamed her question at Chapman, who was closest to us, standing between us and the creatures, firing her pistol over and over. Her face was pale, her jaw set, as she pulled the trigger again and again and again.
“Dude, open the fucking door,” Kat yelled at Chapman, pounding against the doors we’d entered through just a short while ago. Everyone was now crowding around the doors, scratching and yanking at the smooth surface. A muscle in Chapman’s jaw jumped, but she kept firing. The crab creatures had gotten distracted with their first kills, stopping to start eating the people who’d fallen at the front of the bridge, but they made short work of those bodies, advancing towards us once again.
“We’re gonna be next,” I shouted, grabbing Chapman’s shoulder and shaking as hard as I could. This seemed to startle her out of her gun-happy reverie. Her gaze swung between her fallen comrades and us.
“Fuck it. I did not sign up for this,” she muttered, yanking the key badge from her pocket once again and smashing it against the screen at the doors. They slid open, and we all fell through the doors in a tangled mass of panicked limbs. Chapman ushered everyone forward, screaming at us to, “go, go, go!” while she kept her gun trained on the creatures that were almost upon us. Just as one was reaching its barbed tail towards her, she vaulted through the doors while at the same time flipping the key badge against the screen. The doors slid shut, trapping one of the creature’s scrabbling black legs. I had assumed the leg would snap at the force of the doors closing, but rather, it was using its ferocious alien strength to pry those doors back open.
“That won’t hold for long. Let’s go!” Shouted Chapman, brandishing her gun forwards. “Follow me!”
No one had time for questions. We all fell in behind her, sprinting down the hallway. She was the only soldier left. Since she’d been standing at the back with all of us, she’d been somewhat safe. Everyone else on the bridge was gone. Holy fuck. It’s literally just us now.
Chapman led us to the other side of the ship, entering what appeared to be some kind of cargo bay: a large, open room with supplies and boxes lining the walls. She ran over to a keypad at one end of the room and started frantically typing before smashing her key badge against its small screen. A massive metallic click rang out, followed by a loud rolling sound, like a garage door being opened. I gasped to see the far wall of the cargo bay sliding up into the body of the ship. Sunlight poured in.
“Wait, that’s the plan?” I shouted as she ran towards the exit. “We’re going out there?”
Chapman whirled back. We all crowded in towards each other, a crying, shaking group, while Chapman stared.
“You want to stay in here? Be my guest. But those things were powerful enough to smash through our reinforced screens. Screens that can withstand space travel. There’s nowhere in this place you can hide where they won’t find you. I’m not hiding in here and waiting to die. I’m gonna run.”
She used her gun to point to the now open side of the cargo bay.
“Come with me or don’t. It’s up to you.”
With that, she started sprinting. With a curse, Kat followed her, then Melanie, as did some of the other girls.
My stomach churned, and with a sickening ache in my chest, I realized I’d left my pack behind. No food. No water. No nothing.
But Chapman had a gun and maybe some sort of plan. That was something.
“She’s right,” I said to the others, about half the group that were still standing with me in the cargo bay. “Those crab things are going to tear this ship apart looking for us. We have to run.” I didn’t want to leave anyone behind if I could help it, but I had no doubt the sound of the doors opening was going to attract those things to this side of the ship at any second. We had to go. Now.
Theresa sobbed, but grabbed my hand and nodded, her tears tracking watery blue lines through her sunscreen.
“Hope you paid attention in your Alien 101 classes,” she choked out as we started to run, followed by the others. My jaw tightened grimly as we made it out onto the brutally hot sand. Oh, I’d paid attention all right. I’d done my level fucking best.
I just hoped to God that it would be enough.
CHAPTER FOUR Buroudei