Dreaded Waters [A Predator Story]

Alternate Chapter 1: Spared

Outside the pyramid, Hu'Kuo was distracted from the alert of a pair of poachers or looters appearing on the heads up display in his Bio-Mask. Carrying rifles and approaching from the eastern perimeter, he knew these were the type of hostile intruders that needed to be eliminated. One of the jungle animals, a howler monkey caught sight of Hu'Kuo and gave away his position with its frantic screeching.
"<Blast!>" Hu'Kuo growled, frustrated by his cover blown. "<Damn this planet's wildlife! I was sure nothing could see me.>"
With his hands tied, Hu'Kuo decides to make quick work of the real hostiles. Leaving the pyramid area behind, the sentry Predator makes a jumping, lunging, skulking dash through the trees. Moving through the canopy and branches at a hurried pace, Hu'Kuo slowly descends to find a four-man team of armed looters en route to the Mayan ruins. If these were the ones that set off the motion sensors earlier before, then that means Hu'Kuo's been shadowing the wrong people. Time to move fast. De-cloaking and impaling one man from behind with his Combistick, this sentry comes up with a plan just as the unfortunate poachers' screaming draws the attention of the other three. If he can take out these interlopers within a time frame of five minutes, then Hu'Kuo may have a chance of intercepting the three cave divers before they run into Flint and Saxon. It sounds crazy, but he's done crazier. Without hesitation, Hu'Kuo shunted out his wrist blades for a full-on assault.
Hiding in the bushes, Hu'Kuo crept with his natural camouflage on to perform some quick and easy sneak attacks. The first one he ensnared by the neck with a cable noose and yanked him up in the trees to be gutted in the chest with a firm wrist blade thrust. For the second poacher, Hu'Kuo snuck up from the side and quickly snapped his neck before a shot could be fired. And lastly, the poacher who was in charge of this looting operation met his end the second he heard the metallic whirring of Hu'Kuo's Shuriken flying towards his head, decapitating him on the spot, leaving his head rolling in front of the Yautja sentry.
"<Four minutes, fifty-nine seconds. A new record!>" Hu'Kuo commended himself. "<Now that these pests are out of my dreads, time to make sure Flint doesn't fuck up our Code.>"
Retracing his steps, Hu'Kuo makes a mad dash back to the pyramid, posthaste. Moving with incredible speed and leaping through the canopy faster than the birds flying in the trees, the errant Yautja nearly misses his destination if not for his Bio-Mask alerting him that one of the sensors in the base camp was recently triggered. Landing with a massive thud back in the location of the inland cave pool entrance, Hu'Kuo accesses the Sat-Com on his Wrist Gauntlet to see a holographic display of the diver's unintentional trespassing in Flint's camp. By stepping close to the hidden surveillance device implanted in the skull on a stalagmite, Kim and her team have alerted the Yautjas for what could be a harrowing and gruesome misunderstanding. Unless Hu'Kuo reaches them first.
Inside the underwater cavern, however, Kim, Tamara, and Donny are already in the worst position of their lives. Flint has appeared with his air of savage and bloodthirsty Predator, he was more than ready for a massacre of these human intruders. Faced with a monstrous creature, Kim's team was cornered with seemingly with no way out. This was not the journey she originally planned! Eyes wide with shock and terror as Flint closes in on her team, Kim breathes heavy and quick intakes of air as she shakes off whatever sweat or perspiration she has on her brow before she starts to play the peacemaker.
"Back up, stay calm..." she begins with her hands up to show that they came in peace.
Looking from the corner of her eye, Kim runs over and stops Donny from nearly pulling out his knife by grabbing his wrists firmly with both of her hands. Looking at him in the eye, Kim starts to reason with him.
"Donny, don't!!" she implores fiercely. "We need to keep it together if we're gonna make it out of here alive."
"Keep it together!?" a freaked-out Donny questioned. "Did you hear the way he copied my voice! If that thing wants to fight, I'll give his ass a fight."
Donny tries to break free from Kim's tight grip. In his terrified state, Donny wants to make the somewhat selfless if not stupid decision to fight off Flint in order to protect the girls. But Kim, feeling responsible for putting her team in this predicament, wants to offer herself up as bait as the tension is beginning to increase. Meanwhile, Flint just watches on with amusement as his somewhat "worthy prey" slowly descends into hysteria.
"NO!!" Kim indignantly yells, struggling with keeping Donny from reaching his knife. "That's my job, dammit!! I got you and Tamara in this mess and I'm getting you both out of here. When I say 'go', grab Tamara and run while I get that thing's attention."
"Why you, Kim!?" Tamara, not wanting to be on the sidelines anymore, protests with a worried crack in her voice. "I don't want to leave you --any of you behind! One way or another we're leaving this--"
Just as Tamara was about to finish her sentence, the cave pool from where the divers entered bubbled erratically as a dark figure began to slowly emerge. Rising from the waters like something out of a horror movie, another Yautja appears. This was Flint's first lieutenant, Saxon. Saxon shared his superiors thrill of the hunt to a loyal degree and he displayed this as he sprung out his precise razor blades from his right bracer. The sight of this makes Tamara let out a frightened yelp and scurry into Donny's arms as Kim realizes that they're in a bigger fix. The cave divers huddle themselves back to back as they're now caught between two deadly alien Predators.
"<Ah, Saxon! Welcome to the party!" Flint greeted his underling.
Saxon scrapes the tips of his dual wrist blades along the stony surface of the cavern floor, giving off a loud screeching noise that made each cave diver hold their heads in discomfort.
"<Are these the intruders Hu'Kuo spoke of?>" Saxon asked, scanning the three human intruders with his Bio-Mask. "<Huh. They don't look like much, boss.>"
"<They each carry a blade sheathed onto their legs. Is that not reason enough!?>" Flint snarled furiously. The thought of one of his subordinates showing an ounce of disobedience is enough to incur Flint's wrath. And he wasn't about to have it with his trusted first lieutenant.
"< I'll take the fidgeting male, pick out whichever female you want to eviscerate first.>" Flint growled, extending his Combistick and leveling it towards Donny.
"This is it, girls. We're so fucked!!" Donny panics.
"Don't freak out, Donny!" Tamara urged, holding onto Donny's arm. "Were not fucked, r-right Kim...?"
Without a word, Kim looked over her shoulder and faced Donny and Tamara. She knew this was her fault for bringing her two friends down to an unexplored area, not knowing what dangers might lie underground. And now she and her team are about to die at the hands of not one, but two monstrous creatures miles underground where no one will find their bodies. Kim puts a hand on each of them, both feeling her skin tremble with obvious fear, not for herself but for her team. She gives Donny and Tamara one last smile as her way of thanks for their camaraderie and friendship for over three years.
"Take care of each other." Kim softly murmured, lifting up Tamara's chin.
"N-No! You can't do this." Tamara pleaded with her eyes welling up with tears.
"I have to, sweetie." Kim sadly replied. "As your leader, I have to make sure you get home safe. I'll be okay."
Kim then turns to Donny. This wasn't gonna be easy as the two of them bonded on the surface before their dive. Kim gently puts a hand to the side of her friend's face to look into her solemn dark eyes.
"No. I can't do this, Kim." Donny protested. "I'm not leaving you!"
"You have to, babe." Kim huffs and embraces him before leaning towards his face.
"Not gonna happen. We're all going back up and there's nothing you can do to change my--!!"
What she did next was rather unpredictable and intimate. Leaning forward into his face, Kim puts both of her hands on either side of Donny's face and closes her eyes. She gravitated inward as if a magnetic pull was between them, her heart quickened with each second of her feat and felt her body heat rushing to her face. In an instant, Kim gives Donny a long kiss goodbye on the lips. The moment he felt Kim's lips make contact with his, its as if time stopped for Donny. His field guide and gal pal was locking lips with him before she sacrifices her self to a merciless creature with a metal spear. The feeling was warm, exhilarating, and unexpected all at once. Kim's lips were smooth yet firmly moist with the softness of her flesh. Donny wrapped his arms around her neoprene clad body tight against his, as he'll never hug this selfless woman ever again after this.
Holding back his tears, Donny nods.
He then grabbed hold of Tamara and with a silent nod, promises Kim to get her home. Tamara struggles at first, distraught to leave behind her best friend to a pair of Predators, but tries to remind herself to escape while she has the chance.
"Thank you....for everything." Kim, on the verge of tears, bids her friends farewell. "Tell my uncle I drowned saving you, kay?"
Kim musters every ounce of strength she has as she turns in Flint's direction. Swallowing her fears and taking in more intakes of air, she proceeds to take her final steps. Walking towards Flint, Kim begins to look back on her old life that she cast away and braves the monstrous Yautja. With a firm stance, she stops Flint with her arms out wide, blocking his path.
"If you want them you'll have to go through me!!"
Those were the words Kim chose to stall and protect her friends. This brazen act alone was enough to stop Flint from proceeding.
Was this human female willing to offer herself up as bait so the others could escape?
"<Foolish human.>" Flint chuckled menacingly as he extended his Combistick out to its full length and directs it towards Kim's chest."<A noble sacrifice for such unworthy prey!!>"
"NOOOOOOO!! KIIIIM!!!!" Tamara cried out to her best friend.
As she was being led away by a bereft Donny, the two found themselves facing Saxon and his terrifying Wristblades.
"<Not so fast, worm!>" roared Saxon as he tackled Donny and backhands Tamara away, sending her flying across the cavern floor and knocking her unconscious against a stalagmite. Saxon then grabbed Donny by the throat to pin him against the cave wall. Feeling crushed against the caverns surface, Donny thrashed and tried to free his arm from the Predator's grip, but to no avail.
Donny was literally caught between a rock and a hard place.
Whipping her head around to see Tamara lying unconscious on the ground and Donny forcibly pinned to the hard cave wall, Kim turns to Flint with a look of terror now that her plan failed.
"STOP!!! P-Please...?" Kim begged, her voice trembling.
Her plea came in deaf ears as Flint's massive hand thrusts forward to grab Kim by the throat. Lifting the defenseless female a foot off the ground as she struggles with her legs and pounds his forearm with all her strength, Flint finally prepares to impale Kim in between her breasts with his spear.
"<No witnesses, no mercy!>"
With her fate now sealed, Kim whimpers and lets a few streaks of tears run down her cheeks before she meets her death.
That's when the tension comes to a standstill.
The cave waters from where the divers emerged from erupting like a geyser, spraying cold water everywhere. Flint and Saxon stopped what they were doing when this occurs, but the tip of Flint's spear misses the side of Kim's left breast and accidentally grazes her ribs. The gashing injury alone makes Kim cry out a pained shriek and groan as she held her bleeding side with one hand and held on to Flint's grip with the other. The stream of cave water splashes on the downed Tamara as the temperature helped her regain consciousness. From this gushing torrent of water came a large black and gray blur that shot out from the cavern pool and landed with a hard thud right in the middle of the base camp. Flint snarled his loudest as this figure rose up and revealed himself to be Hu'Kuo. Looking around, Hu'Kuo huffed and growled with rising temperament at the sight of Saxon pinning Donny against the cave wall, a half-conscious Tamara moaning on the ground in front of him, and Kim being strangled in mid-air by Flint.
"<What is the meaning of this!?>" Hu'Kuo demanded with a loud resonating roar that made Tamara cover her ears.
She also noticed as Hu'Kuo strode past her with his heavy footsteps to approach Flint and the helpless Kim, he had something dark and dripping with blood clutched in his right claws.
"Oh god..!" Tamara whimpered quietly. "Donny..is that a..?"
He too saw as she quivered at the sight of a human head being brought by the hulking Predator Hu'Kuo who tossed the dripping red extremity in front of Flint with a sloshing roll. It bounced right at Flint's right calf with blood splattering on Kim's foot, making the suspended woman groan and gag in disgust.
"<What's this?>," asked Flint.
"<What does it look like?>" Hu'Kuo coolly demanded, incredulous. "<It's a severed head from one of the intruders, 'boss', not these three. Poachers or more of those insurgents from yesterday. Now if you would do us all a favor and let these interlopers free, starting with that female in your claws!>"
Flint growled and sneered in Hu'Kuo's facemask.
"<And why would I do that? Me and Saxon are gonna make an example of these putrid meat sacks. The male he has looked like he was gonna pull a knife on me so if you'll excuse us, Saxon needs to have his blades polished! And if you don't like how we operate, you can go suck my MASSIVE, PRICKLY-->"
The divers cringed at Flint's last statement.
Not only were they at the mercy of the two Predators, but now they're in the middle of a tense argument when this third one that showed up tossing a severed head. Their dialogue was jarring to their human ears as the Yautja dialect sounded like a bunch of leonine roaring, grunting croaks, and rapid clicking sounds. While Donny was pinned by Saxon and Kim was held by her throat in the air by Flint, Tamara wasn't about to stand by and do nothing. She got up from the cavern floor and quietly crept behind where Kim was being held up by Flint. Joining her captive friend, she put pressure on her wound and whispered to her some words of support before Saxon catches her in the act.
"<SIR!!>"
This catches Flint's attention as he whips his head to see Tamara behind his captive. Lunging at her with his Combistick, Tamara screams and flinched before hearing a metallic ringing and clanging of blades. Looking forward, she sees that Hu'Kuo has blocked Flint's spear with his Wrist Blades at the last second!
A close save.
Nevertheless, Tamara continued to stay by her friend's side as she held Kim up by her hips with both hands so her neck doesn't break or asphyxiate from being dangled off her feet for so long.
"<What do you think you're doing, welp?!>" Flint growled as he struggled in freeing his spear from the clasp of Hu'Kuo's Wrist Blades.
"<Release this female, damn you!!>" Hu'Kuo asserted. "<She and the other two can leave. I've dealt with the others outside, you and Saxon waste these three you'll just bring more attention to your base camp. Are we clear?>"
Flint had a moment to mull this over in his mind.
If he kills these divers, not only will he eliminate any witnesses but will eventually lead to a search party to come looking for their bodies and lead them to his base. But on the other hand, Flint doesn't want to look weak sparing a few measly humans who wandered into his location, in spite of the fact that they were ignorant of his presence.
"<If I don't kill these wastrels, they'll alert more human to our location.>" Flint growled."<So let's start with their leader!!>"
Then he started to tighten his grip on Kim's neck, making her scream and the other two divers to protest and yell for him to stop.
"You sick fuck! Leave her alone!!" Donny bellowed while still being pinned by Saxon.
"Stop this!!!" Tamara pleaded.
 She was closest to Kim's side which made the sound of her best friend's screaming and gagging a lot more painful to hear. What was more unpleasant to see was the fact that Kim's face was turning blue with each second Flint was strangling her.
Left with no other choice, Hu'Kuo decided to pull out the big guns.
"<You wanna play rough?>"
Thrusting out his Wrist Gauntlet, Hu'Kuo dialed a code onto the touchpad. In an instant, Flint and Saxon's Wrist Gauntlets popped open. On-screen, the Self-Destruct function was activated almost remotely by Hu'Kuo using a type of hacking mechanism.
"<Y-You fool!!> Flint bellowed frantically. "<You'll wipe us out along with these three insects!!>"
"<Let these insects go and I'll shut it off.>" Hu'Kuo calmly added. "<Those are my terms. Tick-tock, asshole.>"
"<Are you insane Hu'Kuo!?>" screamed Saxon from across the cave.
Even Donny could tell by the sound of the beeping that it was a miniature nuke ready to blow them all to oblivion!
"Tamara, it's a bomb!" he yells. "We gotta run!"
"NO!! Not without Kim!" Tamara refused. "I'm not leaving her to die here!"
Realizing he's in a serious bind with his poor choice, Flint decides to accept Hu'Kuo's demands. Anything's better than getting blown into a crater that's three hundred city blocks wide in the blast radius. Seeing the countdown accelerating and Kim on the verge of death by strangulation, Flint loosens his grip and frees her before signaling Saxon to release Donny as well. Tamara catches Kim and gently lays her on the ground.
"KIM!!! Kim? Hey, wake up! Wha...OMIGOD... No...!"
Donny runs over to the girls to see their leader almost motionless and not responding - something was wrong.
 Kim's face was regaining color but it looked like she wasn't moving at all.
As Hu'Kuo deactivated he Self-Destruct function, he too noticed this unravel.
 Was he too late?
Tamara cried and begged for Kim to open her eyes, but to no avail. Donny tried helplessly for Kim to regain consciousness by shaking her upper body. That's where he decides to try one last act: CPR.
Getting her to focus, Donny instructs Tamara to use both her hands to press down hard and fast on the center of Kim's chest. While Tamara's it, Donny takes it upon himself to resuscitate Kim through her airway as he pushes Kim's chin up and tilts her head up to open the latter's mouth and blow quick rescue breaths into.
"C'mon Kimmy...don't give up on us!" Donny panted heavily as he caresses Kim's lifeless cheek before continuing.
The more Tamara grunts with each compression push on Kim's bosom, the more Donny kept blowing into her windpipe for air. The three Yautjas watch on as the humans desperately struggled to save one of their own merely by instinct. Hu'Kuo was both fascinated and at the same time worried about Kim's well-being after apparently being strangled. Using his Bio-Mask, Hu'Kuo sees through thermal and x-ray vision how the resuscitation process goes as air gets transported to Kim's lungs. Donny and Tamara persisted in giving their leader CPR for several more minutes.
They repeat this process nearly ten to fifteen times with each push and blow.
 After perhaps the fortieth press on her chest, Kim's upper body jerks upward as she wakes up coughing and gagging!
"Kim!! Oh god, you're alive!" Tamara cries out, embracing and kissing her head repeatedly.
"OHHHH!!!....What the--you..you saved me." moaned Kim with a mildly hoarse voice. "T-Thank you. Both of you."
"We're not out of this yet, boss." Donny reminded his grateful leader with a hand to her cheek.
"We need to get out of here." Tamara nods in agreement. "But how?"
Next to the divers, the trio of Yautja were at odds with each other.
Hu'Kuo snarled at Flint for his unnecessary savagery and reprimanded Saxon for allowing his superior to needlessly carry out attempted kills without a second thought. While the three disputed, it bought the three divers an opportunity to finally grab their gear and leave the cave. Kim supports herself with an arm around Tamara and Donny as they pick her up from the cavern floor. Hu'Kuo then uses the voice mimicry function in his Bio-Mask to copy part of Tamara's dialogue with a distorted, "Get out of here." and a finger pointing to the pool exit.
"That's our cue, ladies," Donny said as he and Tamara proceeded to carry Kim to where their diving tanks and re-breathers are placed.
Tamara took off one of her gloves and put pressure on Kim's side.
"Hold it here until we get back to the surface." she instructed.
"I will." Kim said.
"I got a First-Aid kit in my duffel. If we can make it there, I'll patch Kim up. " Donny proposed before turning to Kim with a brave face. "You're gonna be okay, big girl. I promise."
This helped ease her mind. Donny was showing concern for Kim more than ever. As Donny and Tamara helped her get her diving gear on, Kim couldn't help but look from the corner of her eye. From a great distance away stood the Yautja that vouched for her and her friends.
Although she was grateful to be alive, she was disturbed by the fact that an otherworldly creature beheaded someone outside as a means of a bargaining chip.
But right now, Kim's main focus is to make it out of the cave systems with her team and get her wounds treated.
"Okay I know the way back to our entry point. One of you has to carry me while I direct." Kim breathed as she used an extra strap to tie around her waist like a tourniquet where Tamara placed her glove.
"Understood, Kimmy." Donny agreed before volunteering to carry her.
Once the divers were set, the three re-entered the water.
 But not before Kim got one last look at the trio of Yautjas, especially Hu'Kuo, who gave her a rather human-like wave of farewell.
Is this really the last they'll see of the Predators, or will the divers be pursued for knowing about their existence?