Chapter 17 #3
Fortunately, I didn’t trigger any traps as I ran because I wasn’t paying as much attention as I should’ve been, and I wouldn’t be much help to Tyler and Claire if I died.
As I grew closer, the screams grew louder, and I could also hear the sounds of scuffling, as if someone was fighting something.
I forced my legs to move even faster, and to my surprise, they willingly obeyed with little protest. Now, I could hear grunting, but it sounded like it was coming from two different sources, and once I rounded the final corner, I understood why.
The corridor opened into a wide space that looked different from all the monotonous hallways. The area was still surrounded by the tall, stone walls, but there were several gaps that led to separate, branching paths.
Along one of the walls were a couple stone benches that looked like they’d been intricately carved, and they also looked very old. One of the benches appeared to be crumbling and missing entire chunks of the heavy gray stone.
But I didn’t have much time to appreciate their appearance, because something much more pressing caught my attention.
Tyler laid flat on his back at the center of the space. His knees were bent, and his arms were up in the defensive position as he shielded his face and head.
Kyle was on top of him, with a large hunk of the stone clenched in his hand, and he appeared to be trying to hit Tyler in the face with the jagged piece of rock.
But he wasn’t having much success, because Parker had grabbed onto his arm and was struggling to hold him back.
“Kyle, stop, you don’t have to do this, man!” Tyler begged as he tried to get away from his assailant. His face already looked bruised and bloody, as if Kyle had already gotten in a few good swings before I arrived. “We can all survive this. We should be working together, not fighting.”
“Kyle, stop!” Parker grunted against Kyle’s force.
Kyle didn’t reply, but he was finally able to yank his arm free, and as soon as it was, he swung it back into Parker.
Fortunately, the rock in his hand missed her completely, and he aimed too low to actually hit her face. But the back of his arm still connected with her stomach with enough force to make her stumble back.
Then he raised the rock high above Tyler’s face.
It took me a fraction of a second to fully process what was going on and about that same amount of time to leap in action.
I barreled toward Kyle and knocked him off Tyler so we both landed in the gravel nearby. The force of my tackle knocked the rock out of Kyle’s hand, but his lack of weapon didn’t stop him from immediately standing up and landing a punch directly into my jaw.
I’d been in the process of picking myself up as well, and the force made me stagger back a little. The hit stung like hell, but I was able to keep my balance.
To our left, Parker had scrambled back to her feet, and thankfully she looked completely unharmed as she rushed toward Tyler to help him up.
I quickly returned my attention to the douchebag in front of me as he tried to take another swing, and this time, I was ready for it. I quickly dodged out of the way and landed a punch of my own, and my knuckles cracked against the line of his jaw.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I yelled at the asshole as he staggered for a moment before he came back at me with full force. “Why are you fighting when we can all be working together to survive?”
“Fuck you!” Kyle shouted back as I blocked another one of his blows. “Fuck all of you! You really think the aliens are going to let us all live? No, they’re going to pick us all off one by one until there’s only one of us left. I’m not going to wait around to be collateral damage!”
That was his big issue? He thought the aliens would only let one of us leave alive, so he was trying to thin the competition and give himself a better shot.
Selfish bastard.
He feigned a punch but then tried to kick me. It would have been a hard and direct blow to the shin if I hadn’t had my heightened senses, but I dodged at the last second and kicked his leg out from beneath him.
“That’s the stupidest shit I’ve ever heard!” I yelled back. “If the aliens were going to kill us all, then they’d just do it already, and they certainly wouldn’t be merciful and leave one of us alive. You’ve been endangering everybody for no reason!”
Kyle scrambled back up to his feet, but he didn’t immediately attack me. His eyes were wild and scared, and for a moment, he did nothing but stare back at me.
No, wait, he wasn’t staring at me, but at something just past me.
At first, I thought maybe he was trying to trick me. I’d take my eyes off him to look behind me for a moment, and he’d land a couple of cheap shots.
But when I heard Parker’s quiet gasp, I knew there was more to it than that.
Then I felt it, that weird tingling sensation, like my senses were warning me I was in imminent danger.
I glanced over my shoulder and immediately froze in place.
Several yards behind me, from one of the openings in the wall, a massive creature slowly creeped out into the open space.