Save One ~James Conrad

High Ground

Loki stretched her muscles as best she could, reaching her arms above her head then bending over to touch her toes, then standing once again. James was practically carrying Slivko as they made their way through a collection of thin trunk trees. "Please keep up," he called back to her, making her drop her arms to her side and sigh, beginning to walk again a little ways behind the rest of the group.

She had pulled her hair up a little ways back and looked to San to see if she was doing alright but smiled slightly as she saw Brooks already attending to the woman. Hank looked at the group before furrowing his brows. "Now look, Colonel," he began, making the group hault for a moment. "You may outrank me, but I've been here a hell of a lot longer. And I'm telling you that thing that just shredded us was the first of them. Now we're on their turf, and we need to turn back toot sweet!" he practically screamed.

By now, Slivko was walking on his own and James was keeping Loki to his right at all times. "Not as long as Chapman's still out there," Packard said forcefully, holding his gun against his body.

"I'm sorry, Colonel Packard," James spoke up, grabbing the man's attention. Loki watched as he pulled a set of tags from his pocket, holding it out for the rest of the group to see. "Chapman is dead," he said bluntly. Loki's jaw tightened and she looked to the forest floor, biting the inside of her cheek and shook her head.

There was silence among the group as a distant growl filled the air. "Doesn't change a thing," Packard ordered. "We are still going to that crash site."

"What's at that crash site you want so badly?" James asked forcefully and Loki peered up, taking a look at this supposedly leader.

"Weapons!" Packard explained angrily. "Enough to kill it."

Loki stepped forward now, much to James's surprise. "You will not be killing kong!" she ejected. Packard slowly looked at her with an angry expression. "This is an ancient breed! Something that up until a recently, we had no idea even existed! He is the last of his kind and if you kill it, you will be committing a wildlife crime and single handedly sending a breed to extinction!"

"Kong didn't kill Chapman," James said, looking at the man.

Packard ignored Loki, looking to James and lifting more army tags. "But he did kill these men! My men!"

Hank furrowed his brows. "You can't kill Kong, Colonel. Kong is god on this island. He's the only thing keeping them lizard things in the ground."

"He's right Colonel," Loki said, getting the man to pay attention to her again. "We can't kill Kong."

"Now that other creature?" Brooks asked suggestively. "That's the threat. And there are more of them down there."

"If you take away a species' natural competition," Loki began, stepping forward and shaking her head. "They will Proliferate out of control!"

"Then we'll end them too!" Packard explained. "After we bring this thing down!"

There was shouting. Loki almost didn't comprehend what had happened. All she knew is James had grabbed her and pulled her body behind his. When she caught sight of it, she saw Hank holding his sword to Packard. It was now that all the soldiers were pointing their guns at the pair, ready to take down Hank. Packard used his gun to his the sword from Hank's hands and just the butt of it to knock him to the ground.

"This is one war we are not going to lose!"

Hank began shouting about the man's insanity as Loki moved closer again. "All of this, because you need to prove yourself? Seriously?" Packard looked enraged and directly at her now. "You're going to get all these men killed for your pride!"