Halo: Xenomorphs Rising

Chapter 6 - Out of There Alive

Relu yanked Quinn in closer. They were running as fast as they could through the halls of the ship. Well, Relu was running, Quinn was stumbling on his one good leg and using Relu for support. The Xenomorphs’ superior speed was useless, as they had many obstacles to navigate through, making the chase more or less equal. That is until the Aliens started running along the walls. Relu was practically hugging her human as she sprinted. Her human? This... needs to be thought through. An especially clumsy Xenomorph skidded along the smooth floor and crashed into the wall a hundred metres behind them. Relu risked a glance back. Gods, they were close.

“Relu!” Quinn cried, trying to pull her down for some reason. She looked forward again, only to see a low doorway fly into her face. She was effectively clothes-lined to the floor, doing a half back-flip and smashing onto the ground with a grunt. Unfortunately, she managed to pull Quinn down with her and he went sprawling to the side. The Xenomorphs were closing in fast. Relu tried to leap to her feet, but was too dazed from her head injury. The room started spinning, and she stumbled to the side drunkenly, only to fall back to the floor. She felt a trickle of warm liquid ooze down the side of her face. Spots danced before her eyes and she giggled manically. Luckily, Quinn was in good enough condition to slam his fist down on the door control. The upper and lower halves of the door slid painfully slowly to meet each other. The leader of the pack of Xenomorphs was two metres away. The doors clanged shut. Quinn sighed in relief and rested his head against the wall. He jerked up, remembering. It wouldn’t be long before the Aliens outside discovered a maintenance opening. He limped over to his ally and struggled to lift her to her feet. He strained his muscles, and was still only able to get her partway off the ground. He couldn’t do this! She was going to die! He shuddered. I’m not leaving her. Even if it means I die too, better to take a stand. He leaned against a nearby wall so as to take the weight off his injured foot. Relu was giggling as she watched a rather large fly buzz around, moving her head to follow it around the room.  Quinn groaned. This wasn’t going to be much of a ‘final stand’. They needed a way out of there. He looked at a nearby airlock, but shook his head. They were in one of the higher stories, too high to jump. They needed a way out of there, alive. He punched the airlock door hopelessly. Clang clang, clang...clang. He fought back images of him and his friend being torn to pieces by the monsters. He punched the door again. Clang clang, clang... clang. He looked up. Was that an... echo? He peered through the glass at the top of the door and slapped his head. Of course! The life pods hadn’t been launched! He fingered the button to open the door and grabbed Relu again. He bit his lip to try and avoid the tears of pain from his badly burned leg as he dragged the heavy Sangheili across the room to the open door. He remembered the MREs and threw those in too. He panted and attempted to lift Relu into a seat, to no avail. Knowing that he could be swarmed with Xenos at any second, he just pulled out the straps from the nearest chair and tied her down with those.

“Kinky...” she chirped. Glad one of us is enjoying themselves, Quinn thought bitterly. He sealed the door and hopped into the pilot’s seat, buckling himself in as he readied for launch. He all but punched the launch button as he heard screeching behind him. With a mini explosion, the life pod was propelled through the air. Quinn hit the air brake, causing four flaps to spring out the back of the small vehicle, slowing their descent considerably. It bounced off the ground and rebounded off a tree, causing it to roll on its side down a hill until it hit a second tree at the bottom and stopped. Quinn swayed in his seat, upside-down and resisting the urge to throw up. Relu, however, had no such troubles on her mind. Instead she giggled from her suspended position and mumbled something that sounded like “again”. Quinn unclipped his belt, falling to the roof with an ‘oomf’. He proceeded to dizzily undo Relu’s bonds. She fell, tumbling down to land on Quinn’s lap, making him hiss in pain. Her head lolled back and she drifted off the sleep. Quinn hoped the damage wouldn’t be permanent. He glanced over to the bag of MREs, hoping they hadn’t sustained any damage either; they were the whole point of the expedition. He let his head fall back against the side of the vehicle, which conveniently was the bottom cushion of one of the seats, making a nice pillow. He shifted Relu’s head so it rested on his shoulder, and stroked her cheek gently.

“We did it,” he sighed. “We did it.”

Relu let her eyes flutter open. Blurred images assaulted her mind, but she was unable to make sense of them. She groaned and put a hand to her throbbing head. Dried blood crumbled off her helmet as her hand brushed it. She quickly removed the piece of armour and felt around for any major injuries. She let her breath out when she found it was just a small cut. She was incredibly lucky; a collision at that speed could have meant her death. Death... She sprang up, fully alert now. She heard a cry of protest and looked down to find she had awoken Quinn. Her eyes darted from side to side, taking in her surroundings.

“Where are we?” she inquired. Quinn blinked at her.

“Safe,” he grunted unhelpfully. She glared at him.

“And where is that?” Quinn rubbed his eyes and met her gaze, looking more awake now.

“A life pod. Out in the forest somewhere,” he replied dismissively. She snorted disapprovingly. She kept the glare though.

“Why was I sleeping on your lap? Are you trying to advance on me sexually?” Quinn’s eyes widened in shock.

“Jesus Christ! No! You are the one who slept on my lap. I couldn’t move you because you’re too damn heavy!” Relu continued her accusing stare for a few moments, before turning to the door and bashing it open.

“We should try to find the cave again,” she announced. Quinn grabbed the seat next to him and used it to pull himself up. He limped over to her.

“Easier said than done. I have no idea where we are.”

“You got us lost?”

“I saved us. Plus, carrying the MREs and supporting half my weight at the same time didn’t work too well last time.” Relu stared back at him blankly. Oh, she doesn’t remember. Quinn indicated to his leg. She looked at him with surprise written all over her face.

“You managed to carry me in here with that?” Quinn nodded. She put an arm on his shoulder and looked away, embarrassed now. She would never admit it though. After a minute of awkward silence as they stared at the scenery beyond, Quinn pushed off the doorframe that he had been using for support and limped back inside.

“We could use this as our shelter for now,” he suggested. “Saves us the risk of going out and looking for caves that could be infested with Xenomorphs.” Quinn couldn’t see it from where he was, but Relu blushed. She had kicked the door open for nothing then. In fact, she had made it easier for Xenomorphs to get to them.

“It’s upside-down,” she stated dumbly as she looked up at the floor. Quinn laughed, judging by the way she said it that she had not been complaining.

“Thought I might mix things up a little.”

Relu grinned back at him.