The Reptinants: The Prequel of the Sequel

The Last Pod

She knew she was being followed, and it was payback time for all the atrocities and hideous acts she witnessed aboard the ship. She couldn't imagine how someone with such a thirst for blood and violence could exist in the Universe. Within all her travels around the Universe searching for an indicator of how and when life started, she never thought she would experience something like the things she and her crew had lived through in the last few days. Patience was the best weapon, and intelligence would be her ammo.

The sound of leaking water was the only thing Rascal could hear while waiting in a dark corner at the Engineering Bay recharging his weapon. He had used the last energy cartridge to escape outsmarting the creature. In the end, it was just a hungry beast on the loose.

The smell of rust and humidity was all over the place; this was one of the last safe places aboard the ship where the creature only had one way of entering, by the front door with no other way out. He knew the creature would smell his blood dripping from his thigh, and it was time to ambush the little devil.

Rascal waited without knowing if anyone else had survived. He had run like crazy after the explosion in the ship's cellar. He only hoped that Echo could have escaped and survived. He wouldn't take any chances and was determined to kill the bastard once and for all.

Some flickering electricity lights and sounds made Rascal a little bit more nervous. He wiped some sweat from his forehead, waiting impatiently. Every second felt like hours until he noticed a shadowy figure moving outside. The water kept dripping, the light flickered longer, and shadows moving outside made him more anxious. Then, a sound to his right made him turn around, aiming instinctively when he felt it inside of him like a hot knife.

Rascal dropped the energy cannon to grab the tail that went through his stomach letting out an agonizing scream of absolute pain. He was lifted into the air, and the pain increased. The scaled tail wrapped around him like a constrictor, turning him around to meet the face of the creature. Rascal struggled between the pain of the wound and the pressure, only managing to barely open his eyes, looking straight into the creature's yellowish eyes full of hate. A dactylic claw covered Rascal's face, and his sobbing ended after his neck was broken.

The signal emitted by the wristband showing Rascal's vitals went from green to red. Echo stopped at the aisle, sobbing a little bit, holding her gun firmly with both hands. She inhaled deeply and started walking, following a trail of blood left by the creature, hoping it had gotten injured with the last explosion. Her anxiety rose the moment she realized she was the last human survivor on the ship, and now it was a matter of survival more than completing their mission; it would be the final struggle between her and the beast. Echo didn't care anymore about the biological samples; she only wanted to get away from that ship.

Echo got to the end of the aisle with no sighting of the creature. She needed to decide whether to go left or right and by this point, it was the same shit, so she took left following a flickering light coming out from a room. Slowly, she put her back on the wall outside the room, holding the gun next to her face. She quickly entered the room, aiming everywhere, but she stopped when she saw Rascal's body torn apart on the floor in a pool of blood. She swallowed the scream, turning rapidly because a sound outside caught her attention. She took the name tag from her friend and got out.

Being a Ravager helped Echo a lot while chasing this creature. She could detect the most insignificant trace, giving her an advantage. She knew she was near because the moment she left the room where she found Rascal's body, she saw the creature's tail getting inside the air shaft. But what intrigued her the most was the increased path of blood, meaning that It was bleeding. That was good.

The lights started flashing all over the ship due to the lack of energy from the Ark Engine, making Echo more cautious about where she was heading. She got to an intersection, and the lack of light gave her a sense of insecurity, which made her miss a small shifting sound around her back. She felt a cold breeze from a rapid movement, giving her some goosebumps. She turned quickly, shooting at the ceiling, when she noticed something moving on the wall on her right side.