We made our way out and turned right. Normally, we would occupy both sides of the street, each side covering each other, but there was only one other person on my team who was trained in urban warfare, and she was running point. So, I decided that keeping the team together would help prevent us from accidentally shooting each other or one of us getting lost, especially if the road widened.
Reaver froze and held a fist near her shoulder. I froze too, but the others milled about, unsure of what to do. I regretted not having had the time to train them in hand and arm signals. But they soon got the idea and froze as well.
Reaver pointed her rifle at something and held up one finger, to indicate the direction and the number of potential threats she’d spotted. I waited for Beatrix to look my way, pointed at her, and waggled my finger for her to come to me. When she did, I pointed to a spot on the ground next to me. She took the spot, and I snuck forward.
Around the next corner, a pile of rubble lay half across the street. A building had been knocked down. Lying on top of the pile was a humanoid alien whose shoed feet were so large they reminded me of flippers. It groaned softly and held one hand to its left leg.
We scanned the area around it and checked the nearby rooftops and dark places. Standard procedure was to approach cautiously. Bodies could be booby-trapped. Enemies sometimes pretended to be wounded to draw troops in closer before they attacked.
I didn’t see any threats, and neither did Reaver, so we signaled the rest of the team to move forward.
I took a position slightly to the left and behind Reaver so that I could assist in destroying threats in front of us or, more likely, to the sides, but we got to the creature with no problem.
It groaned from a tiny orifice that must have been its mouth, no more than an inch wide. It opened two small, black eyes but didn’t try to escape, and it wasn’t one of the ones who was stalking my team. It was too injured to escape.
“It’s not a Xeno,” Reaver said as she inspected the alien’s wound. “Looks like it got winged by one though. It’s burned pretty bad. What do you want to do?”
“Let’s take it off the street,” I said. “Nyna can patch it up. Then, we can keep moving. But we aren’t taking anyone with us.”
I beckoned Skrew and pointed to the alien, and Skrew picked it up by its huge feet while Reaver held it under its armpits.
When we were under the remains of the second story of a nearby building, Nyna looked the alien over.
“This is gonna hurt a little,” she said, “but you’ll be better real quick, okay?”
The alien nodded wordlessly.
Nyna retrieved her healing rod and waved it slowly over the wound. The creature hissed, stuck out a long, forked tongue that looked purple in the moonlight, and arched its back. A few seconds later, it sighed and opened its eyes.
“Thank you,” it whispered. Then it turned to me. “You’re the Jacob?”
“I am.”
“We are in your debt. The resistance is fighting the Ssssitar.”
It drew out the s-sound, and when it did, the purple tongue wagged out of its mouth. “We were winning, but there are many. They came from the ssssky. We fought them. We sssstole their weapons. We killed many, but we losssst. Many died.”
“I understand,” I said. “Stay here and rest. You’ve done your part.”
“I”ll have to. Thank you.”
“Skrew is getting the spookers,” the vrak whispered.
We regrouped and headed out again. It seemed that Graggle had actually obeyed my orders and formed somewhat of a resistance. They’d obviously been enough of a threat for the Xeno to send reinforcements. I hoped they managed to kill some before being routed.
The sound of struggling and a scream froze the column again. We all took a knee to lower our profiles and searched for the threat.
Three shadows emerged from the side of a building about 30 feet away. Two resembled praying mantises, stood at more than six feet tall, and walked on pointy feet.
The Xeno had arrived.
The third shadow was bipedal, shorter than the other two, and looked like some kind of humanoid. He was being held between the two others. One Xeno held its arms, the other its legs. Then, they yanked and pulled their victim in half, top from bottom. It was dead before its guts splattered on the ground.
Suddenly, I saw the shadow of the long-limbed beast again. It was only for an instant, but the way it moved made it clear I wasn’t imagining things. It was there, and it was stalking us.
The creature seemed to have been attracted by the Xeno. When the show was over, it vanished back into the fog. I glanced at my teammates, but none of them appeared to have spotted it. Beatrix, however, appeared nervous.
For the next few minutes, we crept down the quiet streets and found no other trouble. Although I never saw our long-limbed stalker, I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were still being followed.
The next time Beatrix turned around to check on me, I tapped my collar and pointed to Nyna. She looked confused. She didn’t understand that the signal meant I wanted her to send Nyna back to me. I tried again by pointing at Nyna, wiggling two fingers of my left hand at the ground to simulate walking legs, then pointing back at myself.
Beatrix nodded and increased her stride to catch up to the woman. After a moment of whispering, she took Nyna’s place, and the younger woman waited for me. I put one finger against my lips to let her know I wanted her to be quiet. She made
