Dreaded Waters [A Predator Story]

Alternate Chapter 3: Pact

Location: Dangriga, Southern Belize.
11:00 PM.

At the Dangriga Inn, a pair of unsavory thug-like agents from a faceless government outfit continue to probe Donny and Tamara for answers.
Sharpe, the agent in charge, was bent on putting Donny in his place with some unethical tactics while his partner Williamson opted to take another approach towards Tamara. Standard good cop/bad cop. The pair of agents finally took a break and traded notes by the entrance while Donny and Tamara huddled themselves over in the kitchen area.
"So what do you think?" Tamara asked with her arms crossed.
"I think they're full of shit, that's what!" Donny answered, also in the same pose as her.
The two were growing exhausted from being to force whatever fake story they can spin from their visit to the Mayan pyramid and below. But what's more, who were these two agents and if they knew about the Predators they encountered, why pry them for answers? Donny along with Tamara and Kim outside were just tourists visiting Belize and its history.
"Look let's just tell these asshats what they need to know and kick them out the first chance we get," Donny suggested.
"Don't know, 'D'." Tamara sighed, sizing them up and looking at their sidearms. "They look like they've been hitting the gym. And they're strapped up too. Let us just get this over with and make sure they don't reach Kim."
Nodding his head, Donny agrees. But only out of concern for his team leader's (and potential significant other) well-being. Donny's beginning to show a lot of concern for Kim since he revived her via CPR and was infuriated when these intruding feds harassed her about the injuries she sustained. True, Donny was starting to have feelings for Kim and all but right now his main focus was to get rid of Sharpe and Williamson. Pacing towards them with Tamara at his flank, Donny put on a brave face and cracked his neck, finally ready to wrap up this visit from these unwanted houseguests.
"Hey, boys..."

Outside the Dangriga Inn, however, Kim was dealing with another kind of visitor entirely. She was face-to-face with a Yautja named Hu'Kuo.
This Herculean yet primal creature from beyond the stars approached the leader of these three humans with a lot of stealth and silence that was required to hunt down and kill prey. But tonight, he skulked in on her to make a proposition for Kim -- one that involves protection.
"Hah! I'm sorry. You just said you were gonna protect me?" asked Kim with immense disbelief. "Back in the cave those two things that looked like you tried to kill me and my team! I even got the bruises to prove it."
The skeptical woman was confused beyond all measure that a fearsome and ferocious killing machine from space wants to keep her and her friends alive.
"I apologize for the injuries you sustained. Flint will be dealt with upon our return home. But back to business, your protection is as I said, 'Kim'," answered Hu'Kuo snidely through the use of his built-in universal vocal translator. "Those men in your dwelling are armed and my mandate demands I should move in for the kill. But your friends are in the way. Unless they can somehow manage to remove them from the premises, then we should have no problem."
This sounded a little too hard to believe but Kim had to keep their chat going the best they could. And keep her friends alive.
"I don't know," Kim said, glancing through the sliding door to see Donny and Tamara handling the Stargazer agents through words and wits. "If I know anything about those types of men, they'll leave but we'll be followed. Like how you followed us! How did you even--"
Hu'Kuo answers Kim's question by holding up his tracking dart. Then he shows her how he placed it by gesturing to his recon drone that silently hovers next to Kim, making her jump to the side in mild shock.
"Of course. You used a fucking drone." Kim grumbled, irritated that she was stalked with a piece of alien tech on her way to the Inn.
"Consider yourself lucky, little woman. My employer nearly wanted your head lopped off. Whereas I saved your hide." Hu'Kuo scolded, deactivating his drone as it latched itself on a back compartment on his chest armor. "But now, if you want to keep yourself and your comrades alive, you'll do as I say. My so-called boss wants me to observe the three of you. He's paranoid enough to believe you're going to tell everyone here about the location of his base below the ancient pyramid and would want me to skin you alive if you told a soul. But it looks like that's not the case with you..is it?"
Kim gulped dreadfully.
"What? No!" Kim declared truthfully. "What would I gain from telling people about monsters as you exist underground--"
"Underground?" Hu'kuo halted her. "Perhaps I made an error about myself. Throughout your species history, we've been called many things: Hunters from Beyond, The Demons who make Trophies of Men, or more commonly known as 'Predators'. I am a Yautja from the planet Yautja Prime. So I think you know that means that I'm what you call a.."
"A space alien?"
There was a moment of silence between the two of them, save for the sound of a stray dog howling in the background just a few blocks away.
"Yeah, a 'space alien', " Hu'kuo dejectedly verified. "Way to sum it up, woman."
"Hey, I call it as I see it," Kim told him, then reconsiders her words to say next. "But I guess from your point of view, we humans are more alien to you guys than you are to us."
The Predator chuckled rather eerily like a hyena with a deep pitch. Kim shudders and continues to keep this talk moving, starting with more information about his species.
"You say throughout my species history, does that mean you've been to this planet frequently?"
"That is true," Hu'Kuo confirms the curious woman. "We've mastered space flight capable of bringing ourselves to your backwater planet for our hunts every century or less."
"Every century?" Kim asked, surprised to find out that strange tidbit. "I wonder how old that makes you."
"Heh, we Yautjas age very slowly. Physically I'm around your age, your third decade. But I'm actually over seven hundred Earth years. The last time I was in this sector, humans fought over the seas in vessels made of wood and cloth that fired cannons of smoke and metal."
Kim was, even more, shook by this information. Not only was this entity large, powerful enough to rip flesh from bone, but had hundreds of years of experience and history!
"Wait a minute, you're saying the last time you were here was during the age of Pirates?" Kim queried with total disbelief. "That sounds a little hard to believe--"
Hu'kuo then flicks something small and shiny that gave off a metallic ring towards Kim. Flinching, she catches the metallic object in the palm of her right hand. Getting a closer look, Kim gasps at the fact that she's holding a seemingly mint condition Spanish coin for 8 Reales! Looking up at her visitor, he sees that he's rolling a Reales of his own in between his thick muscular fingers.
"...OK, I believe you."
With a content grunt, Hu'Kuo began circling the woman he was chatting with. Hu'kuo uses the wrist gauntlet to examine her from head to toe and scan Kim's body with his Bio-Mask's thermal and skeletal view.
"Uh, hey! What are you doing?! Are you a vulture or something in another life?!" she fussed, then promptly puts both her arms over her chest, making her uneasy.
"Relax. I'm just making sure you're not concealing a weapon underneath your robes." he pointed out. "Though you are a fit-looking woman, I'll give you that."
This makes her gasp in outrage that her modesty was just intruded on.
"UGH! Then I take it you're some kind of invasive species, aren't you?" Kim says, growing irritated and finally more sure enough to face down this space monster. "You came to this planet to conquer humanity and all that--"
"Oh, don't be asinine, little woman," Hu'kuo growled, pacing towards her in a menacing behavior. "My race does not invade or whatever it is your people make us out to be in your insipid media. We come to many worlds, yours included, where heat and strife draw us in to perfect our long-standing ancient tradition: the art of the Hunt. But that doesn't make us mindless savages. We only hunt and kill those we deem worthy enough to be granted a quick death."
This seems to clear up a few things for Kim and enlighten her about the Yautja race.
"So what does that make me?" Kim inquired with her arms out, incredulous. She then unfastens her robe and gestures to the strangulation bruises on her neck. "Am I worthy to die by your species, cause I got the wounds to prove it!!"
"Didn't I just tell you to be at ease!?"
"Don't 'at ease' me!! I just had one hell of a day!" Kim shouted, growing hysterical and fully committed to vent out the latent stress that's been dwelling inside of her. "It's bad enough knowing that I just steered my friends into a death trap, but just a minute ago that a nightmare that we all didn't make it out alive! And I got the worst of it; one of your lackeys shot me in the back with that ray gun on his shoulder and it blew my whole fucking boob open!! Have you any idea what that feels like--!?"
Her nonsensical yelling catches the attention of Agent Williamson as he opens the Inn's sliding door to check on Kim. Realizing what she's done, Kim whips her head towards the Predator, who instantly activates his cloaking tech and disappears from view by blending with the shade of the neighboring palm trees and bushes.
"Hey, Blondie, who you yelling at!?" Williamson asked disdainfully.
Looking at the space where she was talking to Hu'Kuo, Kim makes something up as proof that she wasn't going to tell a soul about the Yautja visitor.
"Oh...uh, n-no one." she fibbed, parting her hair and straightening her robe. Knowing she'd put her team in a bigger fix than before, Kim proceeds to lie to keep Williamson in the dark about her otherworldly guest. "...J-Just a local boozer making eyes at me. You know us gringas are an easy mark around here."
Williamson stepped out onto the veranda.
Taking a look at every moist plank on the floor and shining a flashlight on her part of the Inn's perimeter, he struts back inside whistling a creepy tune. But not before glancing at Kim in a way that was just as intrusive as Hu'Kuo scanning her body.
"If I was you, I'd head back in with your entourage, little lady," he advised. "Never know what kind of dangerous freaks are about."
"Hmm, I'll take your word for it, suit, " Kim told him while backing up. "Give me five more minutes, I'm still a bit groggy."
"Fine. But make it fast, sweets."
Shutting the sliding door hard enough to nearly break the glass window, Williamson retreats into the Inn. With him out of the way, Kim can breathe a half-hearted sigh of relief so she can finish her conversation with the Predator. If this thing doesn't try anything first.
Materializing back in view, Hu'Kuo steps out of the shadows and lightly applauds Kim which startles her with a gasp...
"Well done, Kim." he commended whilst giving off a chittering purr. "It appears you know how to keep your secrets and handle yourself. Your deception is commendable if not effective."
"Of course." Kim nodded, with her anger finally ebbed. "I can keep my word. But can you do the same? Can your proposition keep my friends and me safe?"
Hu'Kuo makes it clear he'll also keep his word by pounding his chest and bowing his head.
"I'll take that as a 'yes', " Kim says before continuing. "Here's the thing, we leave this country in three days. Can you keep us safe and yourself out of sight by these goons until then?"
The benign Yautja folded his arms. But after giving Kim's words some thought, Hu'Kuo nods.
"Three days, huh? I can make no such promises on whether or not some people will be hurt, but I'll do what I must. I accept," he tells her. Then he reaches behind his utility belt and pulls some kind of bag and places it on the veranda ledge across from where Kim stood- the same one Saxon presented to him on the bridge of his ship. "Here, take this."
Kim lifts an eyebrow, unsure of the bag's contents.
"Uh, is this..?"
"It's not another severed head if that's what you're thinking."
Casting that gory thought aside, Kim approaches the bag and opens it cautiously. Looking inside, she finds something that makes her chestnut eyes widen their biggest! Carefully pulling it out, Kim holds out a golden figurine and rummaging further, she finds a Danza flute whistle! All these looked to be old but somehow well-preserved objects from the Mayan civilization!
"My! How did you even? I--wow!!" Kim says, struggling to contain her excitement of the artifacts her team thought would find back in the pyramid! It's as if fate or fortune was somehow smiling at Kim and delivered the rewards of her survival from an unlikely source. She was especially enchanted by one such figurine of an ancient Mayan priestess.
"Ohh, this is beautiful!" Kim cooed blissfully as she agrees to the Predator's demands, then zipping up the satchel full of artifacts. "Say no more! As the leader of my team, I'll make sure our lips are sealed."
Backing up mysteriously towards the shadows of the palm trees, Hu'Kuo activates his cloaking tech as he begins to make a somewhat foreboding and ominous exit.
"Very wise of you. Until then, I'll be watching you and your comrades closely. Farewell for now...."
Now that the seemingly merciful Predator is out of sight, Kim finally heads back inside. Looking inside, she sees that agents Sharpe and Williamson had since then left. Probably have had enough of Donny and Tamara stalling them long enough to leave. Once she got in and closed the sliding door gently behind her, Kim is greeted by Tamara with a warm hug. Then the girls are followed by Donny - whom Kim embraces just as tight before handing him the bag and telling him to keep it safe.
"Whoa! Where'd you get this?" he inquired, looking at the contents of the satchel with dumbfoundedness.
"It's a long story, " Kim says with an exhausted yawn. "Maybe it's best I'll explain it to you two in the morning."
"Agreed Kimmy, " said Tamara, patting Kim on her shoulders and starts guiding her back to the darkness of the guest room. "Off to bed with you, it's almost midnight."
"Uh, wait...can I sleep out here with you guys?" Kim inquired of her two friends. "Please, I... I don't want to be alone right now."
Donny then sets the black satchel down and comes up to Kim, gently lifting her chin. Tamara looked on with an expression of total amazement that he was stepping up and showing how much Kim meant to him.
"Of course, big girl," Donny says in a comforting tone of utmost affection making Kim's eyes well up with tears. "You've been through a lot today so--"
His words were cut off by Kim throwing her arms around him in a tight embrace then she plants a smooch on the lips, making Tamara squeal in delight.
"God, I love you guys.." Kim, with tears soaking her cheeks once again, thanked them with a choked-up voice. "I mean it."
After sharing a bonding moment, the three then pulled out the queen-sized sleeper sofa in the living room space. Cramming themselves in the mattress, the trio finally shut the lights off and finally slept.