You Don't Belong Here

Chapter Sixteen

As O'kaor equipped himself with the metal breastplate, shoulder pads, thigh shields, boots, gauntlets, and finally the 'mask of mystery' as the scientists had jokingly referred to it, Brielle searched the bodies of the fallen guards that had survived less than a minute against the odd pair. She retrieved a handgun that was equipped with a silencer, the extra magazines, and extra clips for the assault rifle.

The woman risked a curious peek at the Yautja warrior as he fiddled with the device on his arm; surprisingly enough, he looked more intimidating now than he had when he was first brought to her lab in nothing more than the metallic loincloth. His face and eyes had made her a little uneasy at first, but now the sight of him in all his extraterrestrial glory sent an uncomfortable chill through her body. Her nerves told her to run, but she fought to ignore them. The scientist in her wanted to examine everything from a closer prospective, but she decided that wasn't the best option now that Ghost had ready access to who knows what kind of weapons.

She thought back to the first day she'd bartered with the massive alien; she had traded a few hours outside of the tank for several diagnostic and brain scans. She had kept his arms and legs shackled for precaution, but once she was somewhat confident in her ability to negotiate with the creature, she allowed him to simply lay there just as he was, the only time he was restrained being the times that others would come to the lab. 'If I die, then I die,' she had said, 'that's how it works. You live for a time, and then you die.'

"Now you can set the bomb and we can get the hell out of here." O'kaor said nothing as Brielle strapped the last of the ammo to her body. "Then what?"

"I will go to my ship."

"Oh..." The woman paused as she turned her grey eyes toward the alien as he swiped and tapped some controls on his gauntlet. "You'll go back to your planet...that's good." She couldn't have hidden the lackluster disappointment if she'd tried. "That's really good." A trill of clicks escaped O'kaor's throat as he focused on his task. A few seconds later he removed a brick-shaped portion of metal from the gauntlet and tossed it in a corner of the lab before turning on his heel and running out of the room past Brielle. Her grey eyes went wide as she did a double take, the high-pitched beeping reaching her ears. "Did you do it..?" She turned to run after O'kaor with the assault rifle in hand. "You did it and you didn't fucking warn me?!"

The two sprinted through the maze of hallways as they made their way to the exit. When they finally reached open air, they witnessed a grotesque scene that seemed handpicked from a bloody horror movie. The compound was littered with mangled bodies lying in pools of crimson, a few heads and spines laying separate from their bodies, and an unholy amount of steaming entrails scattered about the rain-sprinkled ground.

O'kaor paused in the threshold as he scanned the area with his bio-mask and took a defensive stance when he detected a life signal in the southwestern corner. A soldier, barely alive, was trying to drag himself to cover. His legs were broken beyond repair and a trail of blood followed him as he moved.

"Oh my God..." Brielle covered her nose to soften the stench of death as O'kaor returned to a relaxed stance. "What could have done this..?"

"T'ahrou."

"What's a T'ahrou?" A spear shot through the air and pierced the soldier's skull before embedding in the ground below. His body fell limp against the metallic weapon and Brielle jumped slightly at the sudden attack, scanning the surrounding area with her rifle. "What the fuck was that?!"

A heavy thud resounded just behind the escapees and they both turned to face another creature. It closely resembled O'kaor, but was larger and had darker markings throughout its body. It's mask and armor differed in appearance from his, and the dreadlock appendages protruding from its head were longer. Brielle trained her sights on it, only to have the barrel of the gun sliced off before her eyes. The metal fell to the bloody ground and Brielle's grey eyes searched for the source of the damage. Nothing immediately stood out to her attention aside from the dual blades attached to the beings gauntlet.

The larger being growled low in its chest and O'kaor responded with a long trail of clicks. Before he could finish what the human could only assume was his answer, a guttural roar sounded from nearly five feet to her right. O'kaor faced the direction of the sound and led off with more clicking sounds, but another roar was his answer. It was a strange sound; very similar to his own, but a higher pitch and more gravely.

"Ghost, how many are there?"

"That is not important."

"If these things want to kill me, I'd say it's pretty fucking important..!"

"If they wished you dead you would be already."

A low growl came from the invisible creature, and O'kaor responded with a nod. Brielle was shocked to witness the creature deactivate its cloaking shield (though she had been expecting as much), and was surprised to see that this one was much smaller than the other two. It stood only an inch taller than herself, and it's dreadlocks were different. They seemed softer, almost like human hair. It had no claws but rather sharpened fingernails, and it's armor was more revealing, clearly displaying its excessive cleavage.

"Ghost..?"

"Dhadtoudi will not kill you."

"What's a Dhadtoudi..?!"

"Dhadtoudi is pyode-amedha. She is like you."

The creature let loose another low growl as it took a threatening step toward Brielle.

"Your eyes..." its words were soft but filled with anger, "Who are you? Where do you come from?"

"B-Brielle Ronaldi from Sacramento, California. Nice to meet you." Brielle mustered up whatever courage she held within herself and offered her hand in greeting.

The smaller creature slowly looked down at her hand, back up to her face, and then turned its attention to Ghost. "You teach your Ooman this disrespect, O'kaor?"

"This is not my doing, Dhadtoudi."

"Yet you do not teach it better?" The smaller creature turned its masked gaze back to the human but continued on its lecture of the escaped being. "Consider yourself fortunate that I do not kill it where it stands. I am not so foolish to expect a pup to know to walk from the moment it is born."

"Did...did you just call me a baby?"

"I called you a disrespectful fool." The largest creature placed itself between Brielle and the smaller being, placing his clawed hands on Dhadtoudi's shoulders and separating her from the rest of the group. The female let loose a series of loud clicks and growls, but the larger responded with much softer clicks. The sound was almost soothing in a way.

"Yautja have nothing if not for their honor and pride." Brielle looked to Ghost now, and he motioned with a tilt of his head for her to follow. "Come. Time is short."