Blood Bonds

Part 2 - Captured

Two days went by before the rain let up. All the creatures lay in semi-consciousness, slowing their metabolisms to avoid worsening their hunger. Only the largest sat up, looking wearily around.

He leaned over Gregal, whispering, "I'm going to go look for food. You're in charge until I get back."

The beast got up onto his two legs and opened the door. He grimaced as a bit of mud leaked into the airplane, but grunted nonetheless as he crawled onto the outside of the airplane and left the door cracked open behind him to let in some fresh air. The dirt the airship was submerged in had soaked into mud. Its metal coating was rust-covered but dry, and the creature climbed on all fours on top of it to look around. He held still for a moment, wondering if he heard something. The beast narrowed its eyes, before leaping to one of the leaning trees. He caught a grip on it before leaping to another, and another. Soon he was scouting the forest, his yellow eyes flickering back and forth for something bright like fruit.

When he was mid-leap, out of the blue something penetrated his ankle, and he hit the forest floor rolling, crying out in pain as the moist moss-covered ground stunned his slick skin. The creature quickly scaled a tree up into its half-dead leaves to hide before examining his clawed foot. Penetrating it was a strangely-shaped cylindrical clear plastic object, with an odd feather poking out from one end. He picked it out to see it had a sharp needle point, and flicked it to the ground. Then he squinted through the leaves at the forest floor, attempting to pinpoint exactly where it had come from. Suddenly his entire leg was berated by them. Squealing in pain, he fell out of the tree as a weird sort of numbness overtook his foot. He was still rolling in the burning blades of grass in agony, scratching at the pins, when he spotted a human in military uniform approaching him from afar.

"Get away-!" He shrieked, struggling to pull himself up another tree with only three limbs. The military personnel, holding a long sort of gun, aimed, and shot again. More sharp pains. More sudden numbness.

The creature finally let go and laid on the ground, completely still, staring at the sky in horror. Was this how it was going to end? Were his offspring going to remain in the aircraft, waiting for a meal that would never come? He was panting in distress as the human leaned over to examine him.

"Well good grief," the stranger said. "An ugly thing, aren't you? Kind of got the same markings as..." the human paused as he frowned, his goggles concealing his widened eyes. "I need to report this to the commander."

"No, no!!" The creature shrieked. "Leave me alone, you savage brute!"

The soldier stood up speaking into the radio strapped to his chest. "Agent 303 to Command, I've got something you might be interested to see. And Commander, you might want to call Agent Shadow onto the case. Over."

"Shadow?" The beast's breathing grew more rapid as his eyes widened further. "Shadow?!"

The soldier gave him a sidelong grin. "Might want to calm down, buddy. We're not going to hurt ya."

"No, no, no!" The alien squeezed his eyes shut as the soldier began to bind his wrists and ankles together. It really did seem to be all over.

A few hundred feet away, inside the sunken aircraft, Gregal jerked awake as his caretaker's voice echoed inside his head through their shared connection of telepathy.

"Gregal, I've been captured. Don't bother coming after me, you need to focus on caring for your brothers and on surviving. It's too late for me... Just get as far away from the forest as possible."

The alien zipped into the air, nudging all its siblings awake in a panic. They all scattered around the ship, before Gregal took charge and led them out of the craft through the cracked door. They flew through the forest, with their newfound goal in mind, fleeing to somewhere safer, more secure, and with little knowledge on how to get there.