Be wary of cuss words throughout the story. Not strong language particularly. Not very often, but its there.

.

.

.

"Lex... I hate you. I absolutely hate you," her breathing hitched as the words conflicted with the puffs of air she desperately tried to suck into her lungs.

The small woman continued to run about the dark hallways, despite being unable to see the direction she headed in. Exotic patterns on the wall passed by her in a blur, only further adding to the surreal feeling.

Miana had never stayed calm in previous situations that seemed incomparable to what she faced now, but surprisingly she remained focused as she tried to listen for any sign of life.

Her ponytail slowly fell apart causing brown strands of hair to tickle her cheeks and poke her eyes. Constantly brushing it out of the way began to agitate her, so instead, she stopped for a short moment to re-do her hair before continuing.

This time she stuck with a slow jog than her once fast sprint. Miana's breath raggedly scratched against her throat and her chest heaved with great effort to fill her body with much needed oxygen.

"Can't stop... But I guess I have no choice." Her lungs collapsed against her ribs as her thoughts took form in sound waves that didn't even bother to echo from the patheticness of how hard it was to even speak a whisper.

Slowing down to a stop, the woman leaned her head against the wall and quietly slid down to the floor. A few dots clouded her vision but other than feeling lightheaded she was in pretty good shape. The few scrapes and bruises from her rushed escape kept her appearance rough enough to tell a story of the death she barely escaped, yet clean enough that anyone could tell she had more luck, far superior to those whose eyes laid a few corridors back in empty lifelessness.

"Lex... Where the fuck are you?!"

"I could almost hear her now. Cussing me out for offering to come along this damn exposition. Miana was right! This is straight out of a horror movie. To top it off I'm alone and Sebastian is probably dead by now," Lex sighed.

Feeling the chills of being watched Lex quickened her pace, but did not dare turn to confirm her suspicions. She turned corners with caution and hope that nothing would jump out. Attempting to keep upright at all costs every time she would stumble or nearly trip over roots or fallen rocks that laid waiting in the dark shadows cast by the walls.

However, she finally turned into a dead end. Skeletons were lying around the place as if the small semicircle room was a type of ancient burial. Or perhaps had been the last stand for the unfortunate souls whose skulls looked to be screaming in terror.

Lex huffed, keeping her mind from anything other than the task at hand. Survival. Ready to go and make a quick dash back down the corridor least she be trapped, the sound of a single footstep echoed in her ears and stopped her.

With fear pumping in her veins, she looked behind her to find the large reptilian-looking creature. It stood at a massive height of eight feet tall, well over towering her five foot seven stature.

Its combi-stick slowly slid out of place with a clink. It planned to kill her, just like it and its counterparts had done to the others.

"Wait!" Lex slowly lifted her hands up before taking off her backpack. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

The creature in front of her cocked its head in curiosity. Once her backpack was off, she slid the advanced technology out and over to him.

All the while, she continued to chant with a quaking breath, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend."

An almost silent hiss filled the woman's ears. Right behind her so-called "friend" stood a large black creature almost at equal height to the predator in front of her. The same creature she's been running from, hiding from, and fighting.

Before she could shout a warning, the two aliens clashed. Her "friend" flew through the air to crash into a nearby column before it or he could manage to throw the thing off.

Now stuck in the middle, Lex had one alien on one side and another on the other. The black creature hissed as it stood and quickly turned towards Lex's trembling form. With a screech, it charged forward and out of instinct, Lex picked up the closest object to her, ready to slam it into her attacker's chest.

Lex closed her eyes not wanting to see it play out before her, but when she felt the weight of the struggling alien on the end of the spear, she knew she succeeded. She succeeded in, at least, not dying just yet.

Those thoughts quickly left once the inner jaw sprang out and stopped centimeters from her face. Her startled sob caught in her throat.

The woman looked away and closed her eyes until the jaw retreated and she could remove the carcass. Lex breathed heavily as relief washed through her. Soon enough though, terror retook her.

Three red dots moved up and rested onto her forehead. The predator had taken back the weapon and now prepared to shoot her. That was until more of the black creatures came from down the hall.

Skillfully, it swiveled on the ball of its feet and began to fire into the dark hallway, lighting it up with the blue blasts. It didn't take many rounds for them to retreat and the predator turned back to her, not wasting a second to keep moving.

Without a second thought, it retrieved its spear and headed down the hallway.

"Wait! Hey! Take me with you!" Lex took a few brave steps forward only to step all the way back to the wall once the predator turned on her, growling.

She held bated breath as it seemed to be deciding what to do. Finally, it grabbed the tail of the creature she had killed and hauled it to where he crouched. Pulling a knife from its belt, it went to work on cutting up the corpse.

"What are you doing?" Her question was followed by a disgusting noise as the skull detached from the body.

Quickly, the bony finger snapped off with little effort and the green blood squeezed out onto the hard black surface. Nothing significant happened. Then the blood oozed out onto the floor causing its acidic qualities to burn holes in the stone.

"Oh. I get it," then as she said that, it - or perhaps he - motioned for her to watch closely as the knife hovered over a portion of the throat.

He looked up to make sure she watched - she was - before the knife sliced down causing the inner jaw to shoot out. Startled, Lex jumped from her crouched position and took a step back.

At the sudden clicking noise coming from the creature, Lex made sense of what occurred.

Big bastard thought that was funny!

In turn, she gave him a small fuck-you-too smile.

Miana had finally picked herself up once again and continued moving down the hallway. At the end was a massive room. The same room she had been running from.

I went in circles! God damn circles!

The sounds of fighting filled her ears and she cautiously stepped further into the room. Following the wreckage of the stone pillars and walls, she found herself in sudden, eerie silence. Then screeching followed by more loud crashing sounds.

She passed carefully by acid burns and a few corpses of the black creatures. Unmoving and hopefully dead. Reaching the center of the room, she witnessed a large humanoid beneath one of the black creatures, attempting to fend it off barehanded.

By Miana's feet lay a strange cylinder-like weapon with pointy ends. In the very same room moments prior, it had zoomed past her head, not even leaving a scratch, as it embedded itself into another expedition member.

She looked at the struggle then back down at the weapon.

The struggle.

The weapon.

The struggle.

The weapon.

Only when a large roar filled the room did the woman finally take the weapon and slid it across the floor to the predator. He quickly grabbed it, extended it, and stuck it straight into the creature's face. With one last shove, it flew off him and slid across the floor.

"Bad idea Miana. Bad, bad idea." Panicked filled her and for a moment, Miana stood frozen in spot. Witnessing the power the creature possessed, she realized that it would take little effort for her neck to be twisted around.

As the predator jumped to his feet and turned to face her, Miana ran in the other direction. On her way, she found her abandoned bag and grabbed it before disappearing back into the shadows.

However, what she hadn't realized was the predator's mask could easily focus on thermal imaging. Her footprints left a glowing red trail for him to follow, granted he didn't take too long lest the trail became cold. Literally.

Focusing on the kills around him, he set to work grabbing a few trophies and his cannon before following her into the maze.

"So stupid! Why did I have to just walk in there?! Why help him?!" Miana had been running only for a couple of minutes before her leg gave out.

She had just rounded the corner, cursing herself out when it happened. Ungracefully, she skidded into the wall and slumped to the floor. Her shoulder throbbed painfully from the hit and her knees wobbled as she attempted to stand again.

Once upright, she kept her pace slow and rubbed her shoulder to soothe the pain caused by her rough landing. Miana removed her book bag, the weight not helping her soon-to-form bruises, and dragged it along behind her.

When she finally reached another room, she noticed a very small cache in the wall. About six feet off the floor. Luckily, a statue had been carved into the wall nearby and allowed the five foot three woman to get inside. The small hole was about four feet high, just enough room to be comfy, and a meter deep.

"Okay," opening her bag she began to rummage through the materials,"first aid kit, flashlight, matches, a couple of good throwing knives... That Lex didn't want me to bring... Oh, a granola bar! Yummy~!" Hungrily, she devoured it in only a few seconds. Placing everything back into her bag, she took off the black veil, situated just under the top zipper, to reveal two twin, Russian Kindjals.

"At least Alex didn't make me put these back! But with their acidic blood, there is little these guys could do... except towards those bigger guys-" Her small rant cut short at the sounds of footsteps. Holding her breath, she watched as the predator uncloaked himself in the middle of the room.

Miana prayed to God he'd move on; that it was only chance he entered this room. All hopeful thoughts left as he turned and those cold metal eyes looked straight at her. He began to walk up and when he finally reached her small refuge, he clicked. Then he trilled as if amused.

"A woman needs to be able to eat in peace. Shoo! Shoo!" She kept her voice low, waving him off as she sunk deeper into her hole until she could go no further.

He simply trilled once more in response. Shaking his head, he reached inside to grab her elbow, tugging gently before tugging harder as she refused to move.

"Uh... How about we just like... Not..." He growled this time as the woman began to struggle harder.

In a panicked attempt to get him to leave, the not so sharpest tool in the shed decided to scream. As loud as she could. And attract about a dozen nearby aliens. Looking out as they swarmed her small den and rude attacker, Miana suddenly felt bad. For like a second.

As soon as they charged forward, the green hunter extended his weapons and let the metal fly. The smell of burning acid on the huge stones filled Miana's nose, causing her to begin coughing, her gag reflex coming up on her.

Nasty!

However, as good as he fought, everyone has their limits. His stamina seemed to begin waning as more and more flooded into the room. Miana wanted to continue to tell herself that she was safe in her little hole, but she knew the truth.

Time to choose the lesser of two evils. And sadly her choice was losing... Horribly.

Pushing herself out of the hole and into a crouch behind him, Miana waited. Neither predator nor alien noticed her sudden movements. Silently and quickly, she slipped her knives out of their hiding place in her bag.

The large predator then turned to look at her and clicked in an interesting manner. Miana simply gave him a nod in response, even though she couldn't decipher the noise - his language - to be a good or bad thing. Determined to find Lex in one piece and get out, Miana took her stance.

There's a reason I'm here, a reason you're here, and a reason you came looking for me. I'm going to find some answers. One way or another.