Predator and Prey: Amara

Dominic

She's ranting on about seeing a tall lizard man or some creature, and the scariest thing about all that is that she's telling the truth.

I'm an interrogator at a large PMC (private military company), trained to know when people are lying, and she wasn't.

She saw what she said that she saw. And garnering everyone's acceptance of the buddy system, we get the shock of our lives.

Checking the mag on my gun, there's a round of surprised yells as Sawyer's suspended in the air, blood spewing from his chest.

"What the hell!" Exclaims, Randy.

The civilians have buddied up and are huddled in a corner, as the rest of us have our guns trained at the space surrounding him.

His body's discarded, tossed at the screaming non-combatants. They scatter like bowling pins, rolling out of the way of the bowling ball.

Standing before us, is what Amara described, a large creature, masked, muscular in appearance, and long black talons for fingernails.

Firing upon it, a spear is thrown, hitting Paul in the stomach. So powerful was the hit that it knocked him back into the wall, pinning him to solid rock.

Amara's trying to get me to follow the others, as they've deserted us.

The masked creature disappears again, right before our eyes, and searching for my pack, I reach for it.

Amara's yanked up by the hair, struggling against her capturer's hold. Something green splatters onto her, and she's promptly dropped back to the ground.

Checking her body for wounds, she swats my hand away, and I pull her out of harm's way. A creature materializes, falling to the ground, minus a head.

The head's hanging in mid-air before the claimant materializes. A smaller version of our attacker but still a creature of great height.

Tossing the head aside, Amara clings to me as the creature lets loose a bellow that has us covering our ears.

Her head rests on my chest as the creature watches us.

Reaching for her, I raise my gun to it, and a weapon with a laser beam immediately comes from its helmet. It's aimed directly at me.

"Wait!" States, Amara.

Reluctantly, she accepts its offered hand, allowing it to help her to her feet. And I come to mine, my gun still trained on it.

"Amara, get away from it!" I whisper through clenched teeth, backing up.

She does as requested, and the laser retracts. It's the moment of truth as the thing slowly removes its mask.

Making a study of its mutated pig-like features. It has small eyes set deep in their sockets. A huge, wide mouth with a set of teeth on the inside and a set on the outside.

It has an elongated forehead with tentacles. The skin's spotted. It's a monstrosity. Its mouth opens, stretches to the limits, and screams at me.

Concluding her examination, as she's endured it in silence, her body hits the ground with a loud thump.

So much for being "Kinda sexy-like."

"Welcome back."

Amara's coming to, sitting up, she rubs her head. Glancing around, she tries to stand and gives up on it.

"What happened?"

"You passed out after Romeo took his helmet off."

"Oh yeah, that part. Where is it, and where are we?"