Happenings in the Dark

Somehow I was still alive. Just when I thought nobody cared about me and wanted to destroy me, the human woman came through for me. Not really wanting to know what the wet stuff was that was on me, I struggled to crawl out from under my assailant's body with no small amount of effort.

"Would you get the fuck up?"

Not wanting to keep my savior waiting, I frantically continued my efforts to get myself free. Eventually, I succeeded, and I staggered to my feet.

"Can you use one of these?" my savior asked, holding out a handgun.

"I... I don't know," I replied as I tried to catch my breath and orient myself. I knew next to nothing about myself, these people, where I was, how I had gotten here, or really anything for that matter. But I had shot a dude earlier, so perhaps I had some experience with firearms before these bastards mindwiped me.

"Here's hoping" the woman sighed, thrusting the pistol into my hands and then pulling another one from inside her jacket. "Our lives are on the line. We need to get out of here."

Then, the lights went out, and the insectoid alien's voice emanated from the darkness. "You should have killed me first."

We were not out of the weeds yet. I looked around frantically to try to identify where the insectoid alien had spoken from, but I did not see it. However, I did detect motion from my peripheral vision and whirled around to see the remaining bodyguard pull up the weapon he had discarded earlier. I threw myself to the ground just as he fired and heard the bullet whiz over my head. I heard my savior drop down to the ground after a few more shots were fired. I looked her way and was relieved to see that she was okay.

"Well this is a ripe fucking mess," she grumbled.

"Do you have any ideas?" I asked, because I sure as hell didn't.

After a moment, she replied, "Yeah, actually, I do. Slide that briefcase over here."

I looked over to where she was pointing, then crawled over and slid the briefcase she was talking about across the floor. She then grasped it and shouted out loud, "Hey, you know I'm your boss, right?! How about you quit shooting at me, and if you help me get out of this mess, I'll pay you sixty thousand Vargas now and an additional sixty thousand once I get back to base."

There was a moment of nearly complete silence in the room, and then the guard responded, "Bump that up to seventy-five thousand each and we have a deal.

My savior groaned. "Fine, seventy-five thousand now and seventy-five thousand later it is," she agreed, lifting the briefcase over her cover spot as proof that she had what I assumed was where the money was.

"Okay, I'm on my way over," the corrupt guard stated. "Make sure that trigger-happy bitch that you care so much about doesn't shoot me.

"I won't harm you if you don't harm me," I mumbled. Seriously, it wasn't like I asked for all this. I just wanted to pursue freedom and happiness like anyone else, but all these aliens seemed keen on exploiting or destroying me. As the guard approached our position, I stuck my head above the crate I was ducked behind and looked around for the evil insectoid alien, but I could see no sign of it. Then I heard a strangled gasp, and I turned to see the silhouette of the guard freeze, shudder, then collapse.

"Ummm..." I was wasn't too sure what to make of this, wondering if perhaps the corrupt guard had suddenly been struck dead in divine retribution for his sins or something, but my savior quickly raised her weapon and fired a shot off near where the guard had fallen, and I thought I caught a glimpse of the insectoid alien in the brief muzzle flash that emanated from the woman's gun.

There was a moment of ominous silence as we both stood still, not really sure what to do next. Then my savior started to quietly move, taking a circuitous route around the crates toward where the guard had fallen, keeping her weapon raised. I decided to follow her, and I tried to make my steps as quiet as possible.

The insectoid alien's voice broke the relative silence. "Tut, tut, and now you're trying to spend all of Xander's money in a futile attempt to save your skin. I'll be sure to tell him that when I inform him of what transpired here..."

I didn't know what to make of that statement, but my savior wisely held her tongue. We continued our trek across the dark room. I had thought we were planning on approaching the guard and seeing if he was alive, but I soon realized that my savior was instead leading us toward the exit. As we got closer to freedom from this terrible place, I felt my heart rate pick up. If the insectoid alien was going to attempt to ambush us, it would likely try to hit us soon. I kept my eyes and my ears peeled, and my finger on the trigger of the gun I was holding, which I made sure to keep pointed away from myself and the woman that had saved my life...