Prey

Chapter 5 - Punches & Dreams

Two days before Leoni's Escape

Weyland-Yutani Research & Development Complex #7-302

Undisclosed Location

A crimson river lay at my feet, a great expanse of life-fluid draining from freshly slain corpses. Each hadn't stood a chance. None of them would have anyways.

Quiet sobs racked my chest as I wiped my crimson coated hands on my pants. It was sticky and warm.

I hated it.

I hated what they made me do.

I hated what they turned me into.

Soon another person approached me, this one three times bigger than the previous males. This one towered over my five foot two frame. His muscles are double the size of my thighs put together and covered in scary looking tattoos. The fucker is built like the human version of the Hulk.

I didn't want to fight him and tried to run but was quickly stopped. A shock was sent through my body.

Some kind of high-tech shock collar had been clamped around my neck, activating every time I refused to fight or tried to run away. This was part of their "training" as they called it. Training to make me what I didn't know, though. I tried to refuse to do what they wanted but it was met with another shock.

My body convulsed and bucked around from the shock that was still being shot through my body. I almost didn't feel the kick in the ribs from the giant newcomer.

I gasped for breath as the shock finally stopped. I was allowed enough reprieve to come to my senses, climbing to my feet despite the spinning room. Once I had my bearings I circled the man with my claws at the ready.

He was bigger than me so I would have to use that to my advantage. I was faster, more agile than he would be. Being so big would slow him down. I would have to wear him out. The way he moved told me he would be slower than I. A few well placed hits would do this trick as well as tiring him out.

Giant asshole circled me with a devilish smirk on his face, his eyes glinting with humor.

"I'll snap you in two, tiny hybrid." His voice sounded like glass crunching beneath a boot. The sound of him speaking made me angry. I wanted to cut his tongue and shove it up his ass.

I hunched slightly, bringing up my arms vertical and parallel to my face, my hands in fists with the palms faced inwards towards my face to protect my head. The giant's hands would easily give me a concussion with one blow. I had to be quick on my feet and try to avoid the deadly blows that would come my way.

Giant asshole swung a meaty fist that I dodged, the faint brush of his knuckles sliding across my skin my cue to deliver a blow to his rib cage. His skin felt like steel velvet beneath my knuckles as the blow hit. I dodged again and again, hitting critical points on his rib cage and sides.

We danced back and forth, his blows missing as he started to wear down while I only grew quicker with my hits. I used my newfound strength thanks to the alien blood they had injected me with. Each blow was devastating to the giant. His face was scarlet and covered in a sheen of sweat.

"You little bitch!" Rage fueled his gaze. A thick vein pulsed in the giant's neck as he sneered at me from his taller height.

I should've felt fear...but I didn't. The challenge was exciting, a test of my strength. I welcomed it now with open arms. This newfound need to show my superiority sent a welcome thrum of adrenaline through my veins. A snarl escaped my lips as I dodged another punch from the Giant asshole.

Drawing all of the strength I could muster I swung my fist upwards where it knocked his head back sending him a few feet away onto the floor with a heavy thud. I heard his skull hit the concrete floor with a sickening crack. Before I had changed I would've cringed at such a thing but I only felt wicked delight. The giant was down momentarily, so I used this chance to climb atop him and slice his neck open with my claws. My claws dug deep through the meat of his flesh.

It wasn't until I couldn't feel the rise and fall of his chest anymore that I stopped. I had straddled his wide burly chest while I tore him to shreds. In my bloodlust I had let out all of my pent up anger and pain.

Fat tears rolled down my cheeks as I crawled off of him and backed into a wall seeing the carnage that I had created. The corpses lied in various states of brutal deaths. All of that had been done by me. I was a monster. A monster that wanted to be free, free from being forced to kill and endure the unkind hands of white coated assholes. One day, I hoped, this facility would burn to the ground along with everyone in it.

I already had a list of people I wanted to die by my own hand for their brutality and coldness. It was too bad that I would never be free. Never be free of the carnage that I was forced to do.

I, Leoni Prentiss, was now property of Weyland-Yutani R&D. I didn't even have a name anymore. They simply called me Project Huntress or Code Name Prime. I've been reduced to a name and nothing more. The scientists don't even view me as human anymore, but something else.

They say I'm part "Predator" now. That's what they call the alien race that the blood was sourced from. The very blood that made my body change physically.

I don't fight the guards when they come in to sedate me. I'm done fighting for the day. I've been done fighting. I don't want to fight anymore. If I am to fight again...it will be to survive. Survival would be my last resort if I fight again. A fight to live rather than for blood sport or some fucking experiment.

Definitely not some fucking experiment!

When I'm back in my cell, a tiny ten by ten white walled prison, I simply lie on my uncomfortable bed and stare into nothing. My mind wanders as the hours go by. It's when the lights turn out that I know it's nighttime.

I let my imagination drift and I contemplate what it would be like to float amongst the stars. To float in an endless twilight of sparkling lights and cloudy nebulas. I long to touch the stars and taste freedom. I want to see other worlds, to leave this retched one behind for a new beginning elsewhere. A new beginning where I am no longer treated less than a dog and treated like a person.

Despite what the scientists try to get me to think, I'm a fighter; not only in practice but in my soul. I want to prove my worth as a person and enjoy the harvest of my fruitful endeavors.

It's childlike but I long to settle down with a man who will love me and want to build a family. Our own family where we can have our happily ever after, white picket fence included. I just want to exist in happiness and get to experience lust, passion, love, kindness — all of it. I want it all.

Every last bit.

As I let myself drift off into the peaceful oblivion of slumber, my one place where I can experience it all, I try to picture such a person in my future. I wonder what he'd be like...look like. A woman can only dream.