Tranquilized

8.3.5 SW
Evening
East Wombwood > Mobile Research Camp

Barden was running, his heart racing and his hands feeling limp. It was as if he knew no other direction than straight ahead of him, there was little deviation from this line he had set himself on. For a moment he turned his head over his shoulder to look at the trailer behind him. It was as if he was almost hoping to see that beast pick off Grace and Deveraux, maybe killing them would satisfy the creature's desires, maybe it'd leave him be and let him escape. His mind was like a thought typhoon, ideas would spin around his head and quickly escape his brain in a instant.

Hel’s Spawn stumbled for a moment, disoriented by the tranquilizer sedative coursing through its acid blood. One dart could have put down a creature the size of an horse, maybe something larger, in less than a minute, but the Xenomorph had a very alien circulatory system. No pun intended. It remained to be seen whether the sedative would take such a beast down. It set its unseen eyes once again on its prey and sprinted after Barden.

Grace made herself small, lying down on the roof of the trailer to hide from the terrible menace until she knew they were safe enough to move or forced to flee. She reached out, trembling, and pulled Vail’s stun pistol into her grasp. It was little comfort however seeing how easily the creature took out both of the best people equipped for protecting the group.

Barden could feel the dreadful thing gaining on him. Then suddenly he fell face forward, tripping over something obscured by the rain and darkness. Probably a root. Maybe a rock. Damn it all if it wasn't geology that killed the xeno-geologist. He held his hand to his chest as he felt his heart rate slow down, he thought these would be the last beats he'd ever have. "Fuck-" he exclaimed, that feeling of dread consuming him. Barden looked up to see his impending fate but as the alien approached it wavered and tumbled into the tall, wet grass beside him. The tranquilizer seemed to have finally taken full effect.

"HOLY shit!" yelled Barden as he scrambled on his butt.

Barden clawed both hands into the wet dirt and lifted himself up. As he stood he brushed the soaked shards of grass and detritus off his body, sending them off flying into multiple directions. He started to approach the creature, looking down at it with a menacing grin. "You had that comin' to you mothafucker!" he mumbled.

Devereaux lowered the rifle he had been aiming. A part of him couldn’t believe it had been brought down. He looked at it again down the barrel of the rifle and it remained unmoving. He looked briefly to Grace, just to size up that she was well. He then quickly descended down the ladder of the back exterior of the trailer and sprinted over to the scene.

Completely ignoring Barden’s presence and comments, Devereaux was too fixated on every last detail of the creature. His attention was particularly on watching for signs of movement, he had no idea how long the tranquilizer would keep it knocked out.

Better safe than sorry. He took aim, a buffered distance away in case it suddenly became animated. In addition, far enough to avoid any blood spurting, having seen the acidic effects when he hit it inside the trailer.

He fired three rounds. One at the head and two center mass in the chest. It was like shooting fish in a barrel at this point. His goal was to saturate it with tranquilizer and than get the heaviest vehicle they had and run over its head. It writhed with each consecutive shot, spatters of acid flying into the grass nearby, but it finally stopped moving.

“Ok! L-let’s get the rope and tie this thing up quick!” shouted Barden to Devereaux. “We can put it in the kennel and haul it back to Sci-Med!”

“Are you out of your mind, Barden!? We need to kill it while we have the chance! Tell him, Dev!” pleaded Grace as she slowly made her way down the ladder on the back of the trailer.

“Hell no Barden!” Devereaux shouted in accord with Grace. Had Barden not just witnessed what this alien intentions were and how extremely capable it was at executing them. Dev, not the hunter or soldier, humbly knew inside how lucky they were to be alive right despite how it appeared he took it down.

“We have no idea how long the tranquilizers will work on its foreign physiology. Or when help is actually coming! Or if we can adequately keep it contained! I am ending it now before it does it to us.” He rationalized out loud, with protection for a woman a primary driving instinct that only added on top of his desire for self preservation. “What remains can still be analyzed.” He said to try and counter any objections from Barden; though he wouldn’t listen even if he did.

He got up, shouldered the rifle and ran over to the largest vehicle at their disposal, the 4x4 truck.