You Don't Belong Here

Chapter Ninety Four

****Recap****

Gunfire rang out through the darkened forest and a group of soldiers came to a halt on their leaders signal. "Squad three, make contact with two and four. Maintain radio contact. One, atay close and keep your eyes peeled."

"Sir, yes sir." The voice on the radio answered his command just as the team followed closely behind him while he maneuvered through the vast collection of trees. The scar on his wrist ached and he knew rain was soon to follow.

"Sergeant, what exactly are we looking for?"

"Same as always, Jenkins: anything that doesn't belong here." He pulled a scanner from one of the many pockets on his tactical pants and examined its screen in the darkness of night. "I'm coming to get you, you son of a bitch. Just you wait."
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Lightning danced across the sky, briefly illuminating the thermal night vision of the bio-mask as Brielle clambered up a tree behind O'kaor. "Hey Ghost, why are we coming up here?"

"To gain a better vantage point over our prey. You speak often of hunting your own kind in your past life...was that a false truth?" She frowned at his question. She didn't like being called a liar in general, but she definitely didn't appreciate the fact that he always referred to her time on earth as her "past life".

"I was just asking, Ghost. You don't have to be an ass about it." He growled low in his throat and she rolled her eyes. "Can you at least tell me what we're hunting without being condescending?"

"What we hunt is decided by what we find." Brielle sighed in frustration before coming to rest on a branch just below the Yautja. He was crouched, scanning the area around them for any evidence of life. "You are more impatient than normal, soft one." Another flash of lightning decorated the night sky and a rapid beeping rang out from their gauntlets. O'kaor glanced at his own and bristled at the sight. "Three Young Bloods are dead. The others are close to it...and Zaiyu sent out a distress signal."

Brielle stood on her tiptoes and braced against his thigh in an attempt to see the screen filled with alien characters. "So that means what, exactly?"

"Dhadtoudi will go to him. T'ahrou will follow. We must go as well."

"But the hunt..."

"Loyalty to the clan overrides the hunt." He looked down at the small human as her delicate fingers brushed against his skin in the gaps of the thermal netting. "This is your chance to prove yourself and show your loyalty, soft one."
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Dhadtoudi and T'ahrou leapt through the treetops in the direction of the distress beacon. Her heart pounded in her chest as her pulse raced at the physical exertion and concern for her brother alike. Never before in all of their hunts had he ever activated the signal, so she could only imagine what had happened to prompt it.

Small, cold droplets began to fall into her skin from the sky above, and after a few minutes her hair was dripping with condensation. The wetness counteracted their footing on the bark, and before long Dhadtoudi found herself tumbling down when her foot slipped forward and her knee caved the opposite direction, briefly slipping out of socket before popping back into place.

She barely had time to gasp before a large hand grasped for her chest plate and in an attempt to pull her back up.

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T'ahrou reached out in an attempt to grab Dhadtoudi's chest plate to steady her balance, but he was a fraction of a second too late. He saw her slip from the branch and topple down into the darkness, hearing her body slam against several branches below before the sickening thump echoed through the trees and sounds of the storm. He watched her on his visor for a moment, but her heat signature was motionless. Part way through her fall her bio mask had dislodged and it seemed her gauntlet had taken severe damage as her vitals were no longer displayed his own systems.

"Dhadtoudi..?" Silence was his answer. "Dhadtoudi!" He made his way to the Forrest floor as quickly as he could manage and rushed to the female's side. She still wasn't moving. "Fuck!!" He tried to find a pulse but his own heart rate drowned out any sensation he may have felt against her skin. Suddenly he noticed a familiar metallic scent filling the air around them. He switched vision settings and checked for a heartbeat. Dhadtoudi's was faint, and a smaller rhythm was pounding away in her belly, much faster than was normal. "No, no, no, no!" He quickly patched in to the comm system and called out to O'kaor. "Dhadtoudi is down! She's injured and the pup is in distress!"

A moment passed before there was any response. "Did you say 'pup'? What pup?!"

"DOES YOUR MATE KNOW OF HUMAN MEDICINE OR NOT?!"

Another moment passed and it felt like an eternity. "We're heading to you. Just don't move her before we get there."

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"Holy shit...that's a lot of blood..." Brielle looked up at the males with concern clear in her eyes. We need to get her into the facility. They'll be more equipped for something like this than we are."

"No!" T'ahrou nearly spat the word. "She will not go to the Oomans!"

Her injuries are one thing, but if she's pregnant and the baby is at risk, that's not something we can handle out here by ourselves! The facility will have a full medical station plus actual doctors! Medical doctors!"

"You are a doctor, are you not?"

She shook her head at O'kaor's question. "No, I have a doctorate degree, but not for practicing medicine. It's not the same thing. I won't be much use for anything more than basic first aid."

T'ahrou growled low in his chest as he clenched his fists so tight that his nails pierced the skin of his palms.

"Do we know of any entry points?"

O'kaor shook his head.

"I might have an idea...come on, bring her...gently!"